o What: Clark College’s potential restaurant and fermentation science program.
o Where: The boiler room and laundry room on the east side of The Academy main building.
o What’s next: Feasibility study by Clark College could take up to a year.
o What’s the cost: For Clark College, an estimated $15 million to buy and renovate the two buildings; for the Fort Vancouver National Trust, an additional $5.4 million in renovations beyond the $10.6 million needed to buy The Academy property.
o Significance: The Academy was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.
Clark College is testing the waters to see whether the community is interested in a student-operated restaurant and brewery at The Academy in downtown Vancouver. The restaurant and brewery would open in two key outbuildings on the Academy campus: the laundry room and boiler room.
o What: Clark College's potential restaurant and fermentation science program.
o Where: The boiler room and laundry room on the east side of The Academy main building.
o What's next: Feasibility study by Clark College could take up to a year.
o What's the cost: For Clark College, an estimated $15 million to buy and renovate the two buildings; for the Fort Vancouver National Trust, an additional $5.4 million in renovations beyond the $10.6 million needed to buy The Academy property.
o Significance: The Academy was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.
The historic Academy property is only eight-tenths of a mile from the community college campus. The college has suspended its culinary arts/restaurant management program in order to revise it.
Kevin Witte, associate vice president for corporate and continuing education at Clark College, met Tuesday with Elson Strahan, president and CEO of the Fort Vancouver National Trust, to talk about a potential Clark College restaurant and fermentation science program that would train workers for the restaurant, brewery and distillery industries. Strahan said the parties have been discussing the potential partnership opportunity for a few months.
The price tag for Clark College is an estimated $15 million to purchase and renovate the Academy’s the laundry room and boiler room, which are adjacent to the smokestack on the eastern edge of the property, Witte said. The venture would not be funded by the state, he said. In recent years, state funding for colleges has dwindled, and that trend is not likely to change.
Testing the waters
“We’re in the process of doing the feasibility study for funding purposes,” Witte said. “We’re looking around to find people who might be interested in contributing to the school or looking for grant opportunities.”
Although the feasibility study could take as long as a year, “We may know earlier than that if we get a lot of positive response,” Witte said.
He identified a key reason that Clark is interested in developing a program to train restaurant, brewery and distillery workers: An estimated quarter- to half-billion dollars in restaurant meals per year that Clark County residents are purchasing across the Columbia River in Portland.
Although Witte said Clark County has “some great restaurants,” there is a shortage of restaurants and trained employees. “We’re seeing that restaurant owners are aware of the need for more restaurants, meeting places, places to socialize. If you’re celebrating your 35th anniversary and you want to go someplace special, chances are you’re crossing the bridge,” Witte said.
“We’re hoping to marry classroom training with on-the-job training in the restaurant and brewery so that the program’s graduates are ready to work,” he said.
The program is projected to begin with between 150 and 250 students a year and could increase those numbers by becoming “the specialty trainer for restaurants in the area,” Witte said.
The projected timeline for the program to be operating on the historic site is from two years to four or five years.
“There are many different moving parts,” Witte said.
Clark College would purchase the property from the Fort Vancouver National Trust. The Trust is about halfway through its goal of raising $10.6 million to purchase the historic, almost 7-acre property from the current owners, Bill, Oliver and Monte Hidden. The Academy was constructed in the 1870s by the Sisters of Providence using red brick produced by an earlier generation of the Hidden family.
The Trust currently provides renovation and property management services for the city-owned Officers Row and West Barracks historic properties.
“Our primary interest is in the Academy itself,” Strahan said. “We never anticipated that we’d be doing the development of the excess land on the property. We envisioned we’d be partnering with others in the community, such as Clark College. Our objective is to combine the charitable support we’ve received to buy the Academy plus revenue from others, such as Clark College.”
Next, the Trust will seek “agreements with partners like Clark College and other developers to put together the other half of the capital to make the acquisition,” Strahan said. “We’re interested in historic preservation and renovation, but we are not new-dirt developers.”
In the next month, the Trust plans to roll out a request proposal for development partners, Strahan said.
“Clark fulfills the role of being an education partner as well as a development partner,” he said. “That’s very exciting for us.”
