The final $6.1 million needed to construct “Communiversity,” a workforce training center for the Golden Triangle, has been provided in a federal grant, Mississippi Senator Thad Cochran announced last week.
The money came via a grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission. The $6.1 million gives the project the full $38 million needed to construct the 133,690 square foot structure the Golden Triangle Development LINK is building in partnership with East Mississippi Community College.
Communiversity is formally known as the Center for Manufacturing Technology Excellence 2.0. It will house 15 manufacturing, technology and engineering educational bays — triple the amount currently offered at EMCC — on a 12-acre site near the Golden Triangle Regional Airport previously donated to the school.
The facility will also contain dining services, two computer workstations, eight classrooms and resource and seminar space, while providing administrative offices and an additional 14,000 square feet for lease.
The state legislature has contributed $18 million to the project over the past two sessions. Locally, Lowndes County put in $10 million; Oktibbeha County contributed $2.5 million; and Clay County approved $1 million toward Communiversity in the past year.
“This exciting new facility will strengthen Mississippi’s ability to provide high-skilled workers for the growing aerospace, automotive and manufacturing industries in this region,” said Cochran in a release. “I’m pleased the Appalachian Regional Commission has chosen to invest in this project, which has broad support from state and local governments, industry and higher education.”
LINK CEO Joe Max Higgins Jr told The Dispatch the project is tentatively scheduled to break ground in January 2017, but could begin two months earlier or later than that date. Construction will take about two years.
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