FRCC Brighton Center on six-month sabbatical

BRIGHTON – Front Range Community College’s Brighton Center won’t hold classes this summer or fall but is expected to reopen in 2009 in the former Platte Valley Medical Center, a building that’s being recycled to serve community needs.

The Brighton Center, one of FRCC’s four campus locations in Northern Colorado, closed its classrooms at 1931 E. Bridge St. on May 29. Andy Dorsey, FRCC’s vice president for campuses, said the Bridge Street location – the former Adams County courthouse – has been deteriorating and is scheduled to be demolished. Adams County is the owner of the aging structure that has recently had the Brighton Center as its sole occupant.

“We’ve talked with the facility operations staff at the county who told us last fall, when they took over maintenance of it, that they had strong concerns about the heating and cooling systems and the roof over the next year and were reluctant to go ahead and spend any money because their goal is to tear down the building,” Dorsey said.

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FRCC has offered classes in the old courthouse since 1999. Dorsey said the site typically hosts between 150 to 200 students in any given semester.

Students who might otherwise have attended the Brighton Center are being encouraged to transfer to FRCC’s nearby Westminster campus until a new Brighton Center can be established elsewhere in Brighton.

Dorsey said the preferred plan is to lease space in the former Platte Valley Medical Center just east of downtown. The former hospital was sold to the city for $2 million after a new Platte Valley Medical Center opened on the town’s southeast side in 2007.

Negotiations on a lease are continuing, but Dorsey and Manuel Escobel, Brighton assistant city manager, say the likelihood is good that a deal will be struck soon to allow FRCC to hold classes again in Brighton next January.

“We certainly hope we can work something out,” Dorsey said. “Our intent right now is to get a lease there, because there’s actually very few locations in Brighton where we could open because of our parking needs.”

Dorsey said the State Board for Community Colleges and Occupational Education – which oversees FRCC – gave its blessing for a new Brighton Center at the board’s most recent meeting.

Dorsey said FRCC wants to maintain a presence in Brighton because it has proven to be a well-attended site over the last nine years.

New life for old hospital

The former Platte Valley Medical Center is being refurbished and remodeled to serve the Brighton community, and Assistant City Manager Escobel says bringing the Brighton Center into the facility is a city goal.

“We were hoping to get them in by fall (2008) but there were just too many details to take care of,” he said. “But we see Front Range as one of our major tenants.”

Escobel said the Brighton Urban Renewal Authority is the actual owner of the three-level structure, which has been extensively improved in its new life as a community center.

“We’ve probably invested $4 million to $5 million in terms of putting that project together,” he said. “We’re calling it the Brighton Lifelong Learning Center.”

Escobel said the concept of converting the building into a community center began several years ago when it became clear that a new Platte Valley Medical Center would be built on the outskirts of town.

“We went through a tremendous amount of discussion and conceptual ideas as to what the building could be converted into,” he said. “Since it had been a community hospital, we wanted to be sure it got a good community use.”

Escobel said the goal is to have the majority of the building focused on education, with space set aside for high school students from 27-J School District to be bused in to attend a special curriculum of science and math classes.

The bottom level of the building will be occupied by Head Start and preschool children, and the Brighton Center would share the first floor level with a four-year college satellite campus. Escobel said negotiations are continuing with that education institution and he could not yet reveal its name.

The old hospital’s operating room has also been preserved and Escobel said it’s hoped that the Colorado Department of Labor will approve its use as a medical training facility.

“We’ve also maintained the cafeteria and the kitchen and hope to open that for a multitude of users as well as doing other types of training for culinary education,” he said.

Salud Family Clinics purchased the nearby medical office building for $1 million, Escobel said, and is now providing dental and medical services to low-income patients from the facility.

Escobel said Community Reach, a mental health services provider, is partnering with the city to oversee the center. Community Reach, which occupies the building’s upper floor, has a five-year master lease and will manage the facility as part of that contract.

“We are working hand-in-hand with Community Reach to assist us in doing all the subleases,” he said. “Community Reach has been a huge benefit because they’re willing to take on the management, overseeing of construction and all the subleasing.

“We needed someone to come in and manage it, and it’s turned into a very good partnership.”