IOWA LAKES NEARS PURCHASE OF GATEWAY NORTH CENTER IN SPENCER

 Iowa Lakes Community College is in the final stages of negotiations for the purchase of the Gateway North Center in Spencer following action by the College Board of Trustees on Tuesday afternoon.

The Trustees agreed in principle to purchase the building in which the campus is currently located for the appraised value of $1.284 million and authorized the college president to sign an agreement.  The facility has been owned by First Management Inc. and Ed Schoening of Omaha, Neb., since 1959.  This transaction will not affect any of the leases at Gateway North.  Four entities currently own portions of Gateway North Center.  They are Center Cleaners, the Spencer Area Senior Center/Clay County Council on Aging, Spencer Bowl and the Northwest Iowa Alcoholism and Drug Treatment Unit, Inc.  The sale will not change the ownership of those entities.

“We anticipate closing the purchase between June 1 and July 1,” said Dr. Michael Hupfer, president of the college.  “Our enrollment is increasing to the point that we couldn’t grow that part of the college without expanding our facilities.  We see great potential for growth on this campus.”

The Spencer Campus of Iowa Lakes was started in the mid 1970s at the Gateway North Center located at 1900 North Grand Avenue.  In its early years, the college had offices and classrooms on the lower level.  With growth, offices were moved to the main level in the east wing of the building.

In 1995, the college purchased a larger area on the west side of Gateway North Center and extensively remodeled it with space for numerous classrooms, computer labs, offices for the Small Business Division Center (SBDC), the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP), the Lakes and Prairies Center of Buena Vista University, and Success Center. The college purchased academic programs from Spencer College in 1996. When additional medical courses were approved for the Spencer Campus, another expansion occurred in 2001 to the southwest portion of the building to accommodate the Surgical Technology program, alternative high school and faculty offices.

Just this spring, new facilities were remodeled for the Massage Therapy program.  (An official open house will be held for that portion of the building on March 29.)

In addition to Massage Therapy, the Spencer Campus houses the long-running Health Care Administration program as well as Medical Assistant, Chiropractic Assistant, Medical Secretary and Surgical Technology programs.  The college has filed official paperwork with the Iowa Department of Education to offer a Pharmacy Technician program as early as the fall of 2005.