Education  July 21, 2006

Town meets gown at downtown Greeley facility

GREELEY – Reaching out to a market made mostly of downtown employers and nearby Hispanic residents, Aims Community College next month will open a center that tailors it offerings to suit both of those groups.

In 3,000 square feet of newly remodeled space on the second floor of the historic Kress Building, Aims faculty will teach courses serving the needs of the business community and the predominantly Spanish-speaking population that rings downtown on the north and east.

“When I worked at Aims, I always thought it would be a wonderful benefit to the college and the community for Aims to have a presence there,´ said Mark Olson, in his first year as executive director of the Greeley Downtown Development Authority after working in the college’s public relations office. “It’s great for the college, and it’s great for downtown.”

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Organized under the Aims Division of Continuing Education, the center’s two spacious classrooms will accommodate students looking for business-specific courses offered through the Small Business Development Center, English as a second language, and developmental courses leading to high school equivalency certificates or diplomas.

The college’s board of trustees in February approved a lease agreement with building owner Bob Tointon, president of Phelps Tointon Inc. and downtown Greeley’s prime benefactor.

Since then, the college and Tointon have financed a $50-per-square-foot remodeling project that gives Aims two classrooms, four faculty and staff offices and a computer lab.

“Bob gave us an offer that no one would refuse,´ said Roseann Guyette, the college’s interim dean of continuing education. “I think we have a market down there that is untapped. A lot of students have trouble with transportation, and this partly solves that problem.”

The Aims central campus is at 47th Avenue and 20th Street, about three and a half miles west of the new downtown location.

Classes get under way the first week of August with two 40-hour programs, one leading to a general equivalency diploma, the other English as a second language. The center will also offer a course titled Spanish for Heritage Speakers, directed at students who grew up in Spanish-speaking homes but who want to improve their command of the language.

Business classes are also on the early agenda, with the Small Business Development Center offering courses in human resources, contract negotiation, business plans, marketing and accounting directed specifically to small business owners and their employees.

Once Aims gets into full swing in the fall, Guyette said the center will offer “late-start classes” in high-demand subjects such as math and computer science. “These are classes that are traditionally hard for students to get into, because they fill very quickly,” Guyette said.

Olson and Guyette both said the college’s downtown foothold could be doubled with expansion into the other half of the Kress Building’s second floor.

“We have 3,000 square feet of space, and 30,000 square feet of programs,” Guyette said. “The deans in other departments have seen the value of having classes down there, and we’re hoping this will grow.”

The Kress building was built in 1929 by five-and-dime general merchandiser S.H. Kress & Co. After that store closed in 1966, apparel retailers Fashion Bar and Viva Mart occupied the first floor. The building was vacant several years before Tointon bought and remodeled it, as he has with other downtown properties.

GREELEY – Reaching out to a market made mostly of downtown employers and nearby Hispanic residents, Aims Community College next month will open a center that tailors it offerings to suit both of those groups.

In 3,000 square feet of newly remodeled space on the second floor of the historic Kress Building, Aims faculty will teach courses serving the needs of the business community and the predominantly Spanish-speaking population that rings downtown on the north and east.

“When I worked at Aims, I always thought it would be a wonderful benefit to the college and the community for Aims to have a…

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