Through its first 61 years, Southwestern Community College has steadily grown and essentially utilized all buildable sites on the 59-acre Jackson Campus.
That’s why college officials did not hesitate when learning recently that a 26.96-acre plot of adjoining land was going on the market. SCC’s Board of Trustees and Dr. Don Tomas, Southwestern’s President, seized the rare opportunity to secure space for future growth and secured funding from the Jackson County Board of Commissioners.
On Friday, March 20, the N.C. Community College System office approved SCC’s request to purchase neighboring land off Webster Road from the Allman Family Estate for $529,200.
Ninety percent of that funding will be provided by Jackson County; the rest would be covered by SCC.
The primary reason for acquiring the real estate is to provide future college leaders with the space to meet the ever-evolving educational and training needs of Jackson, Macon, Swain Counties and the Qualla Boundary.
“We don’t have any immediate plans to build,” Dr. Tomas said. “We are in the final stages of our current Master Plan, which began in 2016. There’s currently no buildable land left on our Jackson Campus. This new parcel of land will grow our campus by almost 50 percent, and that will be immensely helpful when we start the process of developing our next capital master plan.”
Mark Jones, who serves as the Chair of SCC’s Board of Trustees, agreed that acquiring the land is a visionary move that will benefit future leaders – and especially future students.
"There aren't many opportunities to expand our Jackson Campus with land that borders our current property,” Jones said. “This acquisition will be of a tremendous benefit to the men and women who make future decisions about the best way to meet the needs of our service area in the years ahead."
More immediate plans for SCC on the current Jackson Campus are the construction of a new learning commons, including a library, as well as more dedicated classroom and training space for the college’s Workforce Continuing Education division.
The process of developing a new master plan could begin within a year. Asked which areas of the college are currently in the greatest need of new or larger facilities, Dr. Tomas pointed at the Career Technologies Division.
The Don Tomas Health Sciences Center, completed in 2021, provided cutting edge technology and state-of-the-art training space for future healthcare workers. And the Conrad G. Burrell Building, which opened in 2012, equipped the Arts & Sciences division with adequate classroom space.
“Our Automotive, Welding and HVAC programs are all outgrowing their current space at this time,” Dr. Tomas said. “There is no way to know what our most pressing needs will be once the master-planning process gets underway. As of right now, many of our trades programs are poised to grow.”
