Catawba Valley Community College and the city of Conover officially broke ground on a new two story 30,000-square foot facility on Friday May 3, 2021 at the Norman B. Coley Amphitheater in Conover.
Included in the new 30,000-square foot space for MSC is a $4 million 45,000-square foot private sector funded factory floorspace by Ingram Walters for MSC’s graduated incubator clients. This new public-private partnership is an example of how the public sector can work with the private sector to create jobs and economic development in a creative manner.
Included in the project is also a renovation to CVCC’s Manufacturing Solutions Center’s current facility along with PPE manufacturing equipment.
The total project cost is $8.334 million. Campbell Design Built Architecture designed the new facility and Matthews Construction is the GC for the project.
The first floor of the new facility will house MSC’s structural engineering along with a fabric formation lab. The second floor will house the PPE/Textile Resource Lab along with conference and meeting rooms to support economic development.
This building expansion will allow for the space needed to up-fit the current MSC labs for PPE testing and two clean rooms. The PPE testing equipment purchase was made possible by both a $500,000 NC Community College grant and NCMEP grant.
Conover mayo Lee Moritz said Friday’s groundbreaking is yet another chapter on the 12-year legacy of the MSC.
“This new facility will be ready to support companies with prototyping new products, training employees on new machines, testing product and allowing US companies to take products to market in record time,” he said. “As we break ground today on this building for the greater good of all Americans may the achievements that come from this building in the years to come spare countless American lives.”
Jodi Geis, Director of MSC