Guelph's worst kept secret is out: Conestoga College is expanding to Downtown Guelph.
The college has purchased The Co-operators building at 130 Macdonell St., and aims to open up the downtown campus in September 2025 that eventually will accommodate up to 5,000 students.
The announcement was made at Guelph City Hall Thursday morning.
"We're going to do a total renovation of that building because obviously it's not designed for a college at all," said Conestoga College president John Tibbits.
The near $90 million investment – all from the college – will be for what he said will be a "full service campus," complete with academic, recreation, labs and more.
"We've been committed to this area for a long time, 50 years," Tibbits said. "You may not be aware, but we also train PSWs at Schlegel Villages in the Riverside Glen area."
Tibbits said he views downtown areas as "vital" to the interests of students.
The building is also located across the street from the Guelph Transit terminal, allowing easy access to the campus from across the transit network.
"(Students) want to be there," Tibbits said. "There's more part-time jobs for them, there's better housing, and that's something that we're going to be looking at too."
"We are one of the fastest growing communities, not only in Ontario, but in Canada," added mayor Cam Guthrie. "Having a fast growing college also choose to pick our downtown core is just fantastic."
Scott Stewart, the city's chief administrative officer, said this is a win for all of us.
"A thriving downtown economy is crucial to the overall health and prosperity of a city," he said in a news release. "It’s a place where people work, live, and play, contributing to the social and economic fabric of our community."
The new campus will be connected to Conestoga's existing campus on Speedvale Avenue West, which is in the process of a redesign. Tibbits confirmed there are no plans to sell the campus, which has been operating since 1970.
But programming will be different. The downtown campus will focus on health, business, industry, IT and social services programs.
The housing crunch is anything but a secret. It's more the elephant in the room, especially considering the college looks to have 5,000 full-time students attend the campus at its peak.
"That's a big impact," Tibbits said about the amount of students.
Tibbits said the phased-in approach to moving in will give them time to have adequate housing built.
"Cooperators will move out in phases," Tibbits said, alluding to the head office of the insurance giant's impending move to south Guelph in 2024.
"It'll probably take four, five years from the time we open to get to 5,000 students."
He said if it was 5,000 right away, "that's a problem."
So what's the plan to get the housing in place? Concepts are being explored, Tibbits said, and Conestoga may have to build some of its own housing.
"One concept is the idea of having a building where the first few floors are academic space, and the last six or seven (floors) are residence space," he said. "We know that for our students, the price point is lower than for university students in general.
"So we're going to be looking at that. We have a little bit of time."
