Mayland Community College’s Pinebridge hotel and colosseum projects are both steadily progressing, MCC President John Boyd said Tuesday, July 19 during the regular meeting of the Mitchell County Board of Commissioners.
Boyd, during his update for the commissioners, said work on the third floor of the hotel is on track to be finished by the end of August.
The MCC cosmetology department’s space in the old Pinebridge Colosseum may be open around the same time.
Vannoy Construction is the contractor for the design and construction of the north end of the colosseum where the YMCA is slated to come.
Design documents for the rest of the colosseum building are due Aug. 16, which will then allow Vannoy to come up with a guaranteed max price. Boyd estimates that the college’s costs will clock in between $5.5-6 million.
In addition to housing the cosmetology department, the colosseum will also be the new home for the college’s Small Business Center, which will be expanded and feature an entrepreneurial resource center.
That ties in with what Boyd told the commissioners are the college’s two main focuses with these projects— stimulating local industrial prospects and entrepreneurship.
On the construction side, Boyd said, he’s focused on utilizing locals as subcontractors.
“We’re paying people, they’re paying their people and those people are going out into the economy and spending their money here,” Boyd said. “It’s not a large developer or a large company who goes home on the weekend and spends their money there.”
Boyd said two locals have gotten their general contracting licenses, mainly by virtue of the work they’ve done for Mayland.
The second phase, Boyd continued, focuses on flushing money into the local economy by bringing people in.
Visitors spend money, he said, especially if they spend the night.
The Blue Ridge Boutique Hotel gives them a spot to do that. The second floor of the hotel has been open for more than a year and Boyd said it’s been successful.
Completion of the third floor will mean the hotel has 32 rooms available. A restaurant and bar are expected to be added later, but Boyd said he doesn’t have an exact timetable for it yet.
“The college has really turned more into a developer in our projects,” Boyd said. “We’re working on that year-round economy. That’s kind of the core of the direction the college is going.”