A new Orange County Community College campus in Newburgh is soon to become one of the city”™s busiest waterfront attractions.
The college had a satellite campus in the former Key Bank Hudson Valley headquarters on lower Broadway for several years, but OCCC President William Richards had a bigger vision for the community at large. The student capacity at the satellite was maxxed out and the original Middletown campus was filled to the brim with nearly 7,000 full- and part-time students. Key Bank”™s Maple Street lease was coming to an end. The timing could not have been better for OCCC, which has begun a major remake there to be called Kaplan Hall.
Thanks to some healthy lobbying from Richards and college supporters in selling the county Legislature on the new campus, the county”™s decision to increase education opportunities for its residents ”“ and to seal the deal, a $10 million grant from the Kaplan Foundation for a college if it were built in the city limits ”“ SUNY Orange No. 2 is on its way.
Today, while approximately 1,600 students attend classes at the satellite campus, heavy equipment is readying the foundation for the freestanding 87,000-square-foot science and technology building that will become part of the new Newburgh OCCC.  The new wing will have two stories above-ground and three below.
“We expect to have 3,400 students, both new students and the 1,600 currently attending the satellite campus, all going to school in Kaplan Hall together once it opens,” said Richards. “Then, we”™ll gut the Tower building and begin work there. The entire campus should be completed by fall semester of 2011.” The total cost is expected to cost approximately $85 million.
“This is one of the best things that could have happened for the city of Newburgh,” says Mayor Nick Valentine. “It”™s going to bring in jobs and give the people in the city a real opportunity for education. Traveling is very tough, and many of our residents don”™t own cars. Having a school they can get to is really going to lift up the city and just make it that much better.”
The emphasis at the new SUNY Orange will be on science and technology, and Richards promises the new building will be “cutting edge,” he said in an interview earlier this year. “The building is LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified, and our students are going to learn first-hand what that application means to the future of technology. Our goal is to prepare our students for the new technologies out there and what”™s coming. It”™s an exciting time for students and the community.”
Richards asked the Legislature late last year to consider the purchase of the Masonic Temple around the corner from the campus for future use, but was turned down due to the building”™s price tag (over $1 million) and the remediation work that was involved to bring it up to code. While the plan was to eventually renovate the Masonic Temple to create an arts center, Valentine hopes SUNY will make full use of the Ritz Theater, directly across the street from the new campus. “The theater is a piece of Newburgh history and many are working on getting it rebuilt. When it”™s finished, it will hold 800 people. I think that it would be a perfect partner for SUNY.”
Classes are still ongoing at the satellite, but students are eager to see construction completed and the new campus become their own. “I”™m ecstatic,” said one student leaving the former Key Bank building. “I live in the city, and it”™s going to be great to have a full-fledged school right here.”
