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That sculpture will be moved to make room for the new Hospitality and Enrollment Center.

“We do not own the light walls,” Nelson said. “They belong to Gateway Arts Foundation, which has generously let this campus use them, and we want to keep them around.

“Our intent is to move them to a location that is accessible and cool.”

Transportation and logistics

The other new building on the Forest Park campus will be a Transportation and Logistics Center on the northwest corner of the intersection of Wise Avenue and South Drive, where a parking lot is now.

That building will house the automotive technology department, diesel technology and truck driving.

The new garage will have large bays to accommodate not only vehicles but also big trucks. The old garage in the West Wing, formerly G tower, will probably be used for long-term storage, according to Nelson.

“Excited” is the way Joe Jackson, chair of the automotive technology department, described his feelings about the new building.

“I think it’ll increase our useable space by about three times,” he said. “Right now, we only have seven bays and five lifts, which limits us heavily space-wise.

“Diesel would be brought in and combined in the same building. (This) will get more employer engagement, and it will help students as well because a lot of students go from auto to diesel and from diesel to auto, and it will really help if they’re in the same place.”

Demolition and renovation

Officials estimate that the new Hospitality and Enrollment Center will be open for spring semester 2025.

After the opening, plans call for the existing Hospitality Studies Center to be demolished to make way for more green space and parking.

The building was constructed in 1999, making it much newer than the original Forest Park campus, which opened in the 1960s. Yet officials refer to it as “antiquated.”

“Frankly this building didn’t hold up too well,” Piazza said.

Nelson wasn’t in his current position when STLCC officials decided that the Hospitality Studies Center needed to be demolished, but he offered the following explanation to The Scene:

“What was told to me was that the space was built with a very limited budget and made with kitchens in mind, which are very specialized and difficult to convert. The building isn’t flexible and wasn’t built to the quality we want in our buildings.”

STLCC Transformed also includes money for renovation of existing buildings at Forest Park.

That includes the kitchen in the former cafeteria and other parts of the Student Center, although officials haven’t specified what will go into spaces now occupied by the financial aid office, cashier’s office and counseling services.

The cost of the new Hospitality and Enrollment Center is estimated at $38 million. Officials hope to bring that down to $32 million.

“We’re a bit over budget,” Nelson said.

“The usual process is, we contact the construction designers and ask them how much it will cost to build it, and then they will bring us back a number, and then our process is to see if we can make it fit into the budget with value engineering.”

The cost of the new Transportation and Logistics Center is estimated at $50.1 million. Like the Hospitality and Enrollment Center, it’s expected to be open by spring 2025.

Nelson cautioned that supply chain issues could change that timeline.

“Some of the building materials, surprisingly, doors and glass, take a very long time to get in, almost 18 months, which is how long we’re expecting construction to take, so we’re ordering them early on to avoid waiting on that in the future.”

The cost of the Hospitality Studies Center demolition and renovation of other buildings at Forest Park is estimated at $10.5 million. Officials plan to hold more town hall meetings on campuses to give updates on STLCC Transformed, and they hope to see more students attend and give feedback.

“We’ll keep updating our website with plans and funding,” Nelson said. “We want to be open about our plans. This is only possible because of local taxpayers participating in Proposition R.”

Scene

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Editor: Theodore Geigle

Circulation: Zacchaeus Windham

Reporters/photographers: Markell Tompkins, Leilani England, Shengnan Gao, Jerrell Phillips, Precious Kenney

Columnist: April Green

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