Building Trades News

High-Tech College Project Will be an Incubator for New Businesses

By Christopher Honey
BTN Staff Writer

Santa Ana College’s new Digital Media Center, located at the Gateway to the City of Santa Ana’s Bristol Street Corridor, is scheduled to open on August 28. Some 250 building trades members worked on the $9.7 million, 28,000 square foot project. The general contractor for the project was Bernard Bros. and the facility was designed by the Miami based architectural firm, Arquitectonica. Construction on the project began in the fall of 2002.

“We had eight of our members working on it at the peak of the project,” said Carlos Nieto, Business Rep with Ironworkers 416. “Besides the jobs for our workers, this was a good investment for the community.”

The Digital Media Center was conceived as an incubator for new media business, instructional facilities for students in the Rancho Santiago Community College District, and a 10,000 square foot production studio available to students and instructors, as well for rental by media related businesses.

Early enrollment numbers suggest that almost 300 students will be taking seven digital media classes at the college – which currently has only one classroom with 25 computers. The new Center will add another three classrooms with 117 seats for students.

Santa Ana College has been known for associate degree programs in digital media arts and its print and web certificate programs, but has lacked a facility where students could work one-on-one with customers and work with project teams. Thanks to building trades crafts members, students in the community will now have that opportunity.

The National Business Incu-bation Association estimates that the work done by the building trades in constructing this project and the investment by the government willprovide large dividends to the community:

• According to the Rancho Santiago Community College District, for every $1 of public investment provided to the program, approximately $30 in local tax revenue is generated.
• 84 percent of graduates remain in the community in which they studied; publicly supported incubators create jobs at a public cost of $1,100 per job, as compared to other publicly supported job-creation programs than can cost more than $10,000 per job created.
• For every 50 jobs created by an incubator firm, another 25 jobs are generated in the community.

The five-year project was funded in part by money from Measure E, a local bond measure that was passed in November 2002. Measure E issued $337 million in bonds to pay for up to 28 capital construction and renovation projects in the community college district.

Other support for the project came in the form of a $1.6 million grant from the United States Department of Commerce and a grant of 1.2 acres of land from the City of Santa Ana.

Richard Wood, business agent with Laborers Local 652, said “Overall, there were a lot benefits from the project – for the community, for the college, and for our members. It’s been good for the community because there isn’t anything in the area like it.” He added “It’s a well made building – union built, so you know it’s a good product. We had a Project Labor Agreement, so nonunion contractors were encouraged to participate, allowing them see the advantage of using skilled union workers. This was a public works project, allowing us to get our apprentices out there.”