LCC is moving forward on the Downtown Campus project, which includes a 90,000 square foot, $35 million education building and a $20 million student housing facility. The student housing plan includes five floors of housing that will accommodate 256 students.  The LEED Platinum building is intended to both demonstrate and teach sustainable building strategies. It will house approximately 30 state-of-the-art classrooms and lecture halls that will increase the number of students served downtown. Construction began in April. The student housing is scheduled to be completed by August 2012, with students moving in during September 2012, while the education building is being finished. The first classes in the new education building are expected to begin in January 2013.

The City is a strong supporter of this project.  City Manager Jon Ruiz and LCC President Mary Spilde signed the Intergovernmental Agreement to finalize the $8M Downtown Urban Renewal grant in May.  The funding is part of the Downtown Urban Renewal Plan that was approved last year by the City Council acting as the Urban Renewal Agency (URA) Board.  In addition to the grant, the URA also donated the land at 10 ^th Avenue and Olive valued at $1.6 million. The City of Eugene also approved the transfer of a Recovery Zone Bond allocation to LCC in order to help the college access a $7,839,000 lower cost bond that will go toward the housing portion of the project.  LCC and the City continue to have ongoing discussions about a police public safety station in the new LCC facility.

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