After leasing its technology center for 15 years, Lehigh Carbon Community College’s foundation will now own it.
That’s because a local partnership, LCCC I LP, plans to donate the building, now estimated to be worth $10.7 million, to the Schnecksville college’s foundation. The handoff will take place during a ceremony on Friday.
When the partnership structured the agreement 15 years ago, it selected the college foundation as the recipient of the pledge for tax purposes, according to LCCC.
The partners of LCCC I LP are Gregg and Cindy Feinberg of Feinberg Real Estate Advisors, based in South Whitehall Township; Tom Salvaggio, president of Computer Aid and his wife, Destiny; and Sean Boyle and Ken Duerholz of Boyle Construction of South Whitehall Township.
The partnership was a single-purpose entity and that too will end once the building is donated, said Gregg Feinberg.
In December 2003, LCCC I LP entered into a deal with the college to construct the 47,560-square-foot building for the technology center, which was leased to the college for 15 years.
“When Don Snyder was president of the college, they didn’t have any capital money for construction,” Feinberg said. “They asked us to build the structure. It was a fabulous public/private partnership.”
Feinberg said the partnership executed a ground lease while Boyle Construction built the structure. The college paid $1 per year to lease the land.
“Here was a college that needed a technology building, they didn’t have that facility and we were able to put a package together,” Feinberg said. “It gave them the benefit of a donated building.”
The partnership also donated $20,000 to build a student lounge inside the center and, for the last 15 years, funded three technology scholarships each year for students, he said.
“It worked out well for everybody,” Feinberg said.
The technology center serves students in majors that include TV, film, computer science and manufacturing. The building houses labs and classrooms for advanced manufacturing and heating, ventilation and air conditioning, as well as computer labs and classrooms, a TV studio and multi-media classrooms.
“It certainly is the hub of all our technology programs here on campus,” said Ann Bieber, president of LCCC.
The college’s advisory boards help keep the curriculum for the center current, she added.
Over the years, LCCC used a grant to purchase some equipment for the center, including plastic infusion molding equipment.
