AVC SETS UP IN PALMDALE EX-BOEING FACILITY TO BE SOUTH SITE.

Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer

PALMDALE - Antelope Valley College will establish a major presence in Palmdale this fall, turning a former aircraft plant recreation center into a south valley campus with 64 courses beginning in August.

With plans for a permanent Palmdale campus on indefinite hold, AVC plans to open what it calls the South Valley Site using the former Boeing recreation center near Avenue P and 30th Street East.

``This is a great opportunity for us to be able to better serve residents of Palmdale and the surrounding area,'' said AVC President Daniel Larios. ``By opening this site, we hope to be able to make higher education more accessible to residents of the south valley.''

Although the college has held courses at Palmdale High School, this will be the first time AVC has offered courses at a building of its own outside the Lancaster campus.

The former Boeing recreation center seems tailor-made for a college operation. The 47,000-square-foot building has nine rooms that can be used as classrooms, ranging in capacity from 35 to 44 people.

There is a 10th classroom, however, that will likely be used for office space because it has heating/air conditioning ducts running through it.

The center also has a gymnasium, four tennis courts, a fitness center, two lighted softball fields, a sand volleyball court, and four handball courts, although two of those courts sustained water damage from a leaking roof.

The college has budgeted $200,000 for repairs and modifications for the building.

``It's almost a turn-key operation,'' Larios said.

AVC is subleasing the building from SR Technics, an aircraft modification company that is leasing the site from the Los Angeles World Airports. Under the agreement, the college is paying $10 a year for three years, with options for extensions, to use the building.

The building originally was part of the operation of Rockwell International, which built the B-1B bomber fleet in the neighboring hangars. It was later acquired by Boeing when Boeing bought Rockwell's aircraft and space operations in the 1990s.

AVC had attempted to lease the building when it was used by Boeing, but company officials indicated they did not want any tenants while trying to sell the plant after a B-1B maintenance and modification operation moved out of state.

Courses to be offered at the Palmdale site include general education courses such as math, English, sociology, and history, as well as medical office assistant, food preparation, physical education and dance.

A course schedule will be available May 6.

A recent study of AVC enrollment shows that the college serves around 6 percent of the adult population of those living in close proximity to the Lancaster campus. The percentage drops to about 3 percent for Palmdale and less than 2 percent for other portions of the south Antelope Valley.

``We have to bring higher education out to the community,'' said Jackie Fisher, AVC's vice president of academic affairs. ``This will be a facility students can identify with.''

AVC officials' hope to establish a permanent 80-acre campus in south Palmdale was dealt a setback two years ago. The Palmdale campus was not included on a state list of projects to be funded through the $9.2 billion Proposition 1A bond measure.

College officials are looking at the idea of asking voters to approve a bond measure this fall, possibly in the range of $118 million for construction projects, including funding for the first phase of the permanent Palmdale campus.

The Palmdale campus is slated as part of a master-planned housing development proposed on 540 acres south of Barrel Springs Road between 37th and 47th streets east. Developer David Bushnell, the city of Palmdale and AVC have been working on the project for several years.

The Palmdale campus is projected to cost more than $40 million. The campus would be able to handle about 3,000 students but would eventually grow to accommodate 10,000 students - which Antelope Valley College has now.

The ultimate build-out of the campus is projected to cost more than $100 million.

CAPTION(S):

4 photos

Photo:

(1 -- 3 -- color) Antelope Valley College is setting up shop at the former Boeing recreation building, left. Below, AVC President Dan Larios, left, and Vice President Jackie Fisher Sr. inspect the facility that will be known as the South Valley Site. At bottom, the pair look over a classroom at the Palmdale site.

(4) AVC Vice President Jackie Fisher Sr. looks around the kitchen at the former Boeing facility.

Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer