SCRANTON — Area leaders say the new Center for Technology Innovation at Lackawanna College will boost the area’s workforce and help it thrive.
Local and elected officials joined those from the Scranton-based college to break ground for the center in the 500 block of Wyoming Avenue Thursday morning.
It will consist a new two-story 17,000-square foot building and a smaller 6,500-square-foot, two-story building adjacent to the current lot.
The combined 24,000-square foot center will house the college’s robotics, electric vehicles and advanced vehicle technologies, and cybersecurity programs. It will include labs, classrooms, an auto lab with car lifts and electric vehicle equipment, large labs specifically designed for robotics and automation equipment, and computer labs for the cyber security program.
A rendering of the Center for Technology Innovation on Lackawanna College campus in Scranton Thursday, December 18, 2205. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
It will offer undergraduate degrees, corporate training and certificates, as well as dual enrollment courses for high school students.
In remarks before the groundbreaking, officials said the new building will help students adapt to the changing workplace.
College President Jill Murray, Ph.D., said the programs that will be in the new center will change lives as students learn about technology powering the future.
“It’s really about the future of industrial technology,” she said.
State Rep. Kyle Donahue, D-113, Scranton, said the new center is an example of what workforce development should look like in Pennsylvania.
“Across Northeastern Pennsylvania and the commonwealth, we hear from employers all the time that they need skilled workers and advanced manufacturing, automation, automotive technology,” he said. “This new center directly answers that call.”
Mayor Paige Gebhardt Cognetti said she points to Lackawanna College as an example of “how innovative and forward-looking” Scranton is, adding projects like the new center show the future of the city and Northeast Pennsylvania.
Speakers highlighted the financial support the center has received from the state, city, county and private entities, including Coterra Energy, which donated $1 million to the project. In return, the energy company received $750,000 in tax credits from the state Department of Community and Economic Development’s Neighborhood Assistance Program. The center also received $1 million from the Appalachian Regional Commission’s Area Development Program, the largest amount for a project from the program, according to Kurt Bauman, vice president of community and economic development services for Northeastern Pennsylvania Alliance, which assists local governments and nonprofits in accessing funding from the commission.
Murray said the donations to the project ensure its cost isn’t passed on to students.
The college announced plans for the center in November 2022 and planned to renovate a six-story building at 401 Adams Ave. to house it but scrapped the plans because the renovation would have been too expensive, officials said. That building was listed for sale last year.
The city’s Zoning Board approved the plans for the new building and the college purchased the neighboring Able Brake building earlier this year.
Brian Costanzo, the college’s vice president for external affairs, said after the groundbreaking the center will bring the robotics and cybersecurity programs, which have classrooms and offices in different buildings throughout campus, into one location.
“It’ll help us grow and … reorganize the programs deeply together,” he said.
The new building comes at a time of expansion for the college.
In September, the college received approval from the Middle States Commission on Higher Education to open three satellite centers in Bethlehem, Chambersburg and Greensburg, the first centers outside northeastern and central Pennsylvania. The new locations will offer an associate degree program in welding and fabrication technology, with certificate and additional degree programs planned in the future. The Bethlehem location will also offer associate degree programs in carpentry and construction technology, as well as electrical technology, and the location in Greensburg is scheduled to launch an electrical technology program in the fall.
In addition, the college completed a merger with Peirce College of Philadelphia over the summer, creating the largest private, nonprofit open-enrollment college in the state. Pierce will take the Lackawanna College name next summer.
Costanzo expects construction will start in the new year and to have the building open by Sept. 1.