TSTC Looks at Intercraft Building
Sometimes one solution can be crafted to meet two different needs, and if everything comes together, the East Williamson County Higher Education Center might soon have a 330,000 square foot solution to its need for space.

While nothing to date has changed in the plans for securing funding for the EWCHEC Phase One facility, planned to be built near the site of the new high school at FM 973 and Carlos Parker Boulevard, a new option has been identified that may speed up the process.

Texas State Technical College - one of the EWCHEC partners - has confirmed it is looking at purchasing the Intercraft Facility, located at Hwy 79 and Carlos Parker for conversion to a campus for all parties involved in the EWCHEC partnership.

“It is more than a rumor,” TSTC Vice President of Administration and Financial Services Paul Woodfin said. “We are researching it. There is no deal made yet, but we are looking at options with our partners.”

Temple College at Taylor Foundation board president Thomas Martinez said the board was aware of TSTC’s efforts and supported the search for alternative opportunities to secure space.

“We had a meeting with them as a board and we told them just that,” he said. “We are supportive of this because one of the things that they stressed coming in was number one, this is Temple College territory and TSTC is only here because they have been invited in by Temple College.”

Martinez added that for now, the work being done by TSTC will not change the pursuit of funding for the current plan.

“We granted them our approval to research this, but we would continue our efforts to finance EWCHEC phase one because this was not a sure thing,” he said.

The Taylor ISD Board of Trustees received a brief update on the plan at its Monday meeting and Superintendent Bruce Scott said TSTC indicated they hoped for similar support for this project should it develop into a reality as was pledged to the original EWCHEC plan.

“At some point they will be working with the EWCHEC partners on this,” Scott said. “What they’ve told me is they want everyone who has made a commitment to the facility on the south loop to commit to support their efforts here.”

Woodfin said the funding received for the sustainable training academy was the catalyst for this move because the timeline for beginning training is shortened.

“We need to start teaching somewhere, and we’re not going to do this without the support of the community,” he said. “The foundation gave us their support in terms of looking at it.”

The Intercraft Building would provide substantially more space than originally planned, opening the door to many options first thought to be much further down the road. One immediate benefit identified by Taylor ISD and Legacy Early College High School is the space to allow for a full day on campus for Legacy students.

“We’re being told by TEA that they want us to have a full time presence on the college campus and this will allow us to have that for up to 400 students,” TISD Superintendent Bruce Scott said.

The size of the building is very appealing because it opens many opportunities.

“It is more square footage than the parties would need initially,” Woodfin said. “But conversely, one of the possibilities is to lease part of the space to potential businesses.”

Initial projections indicate about 45,000 square feet would be used by Legacy, 91,500 by TSTC and 39,140 by Temple College. Common spaces, such as conference rooms, a prep kitchen, library and break rooms would account for another 39,700 square feet.

He said over the next few weeks TSTC would be working on a proposal, which could include many options.

“Temple College would still be the lead partner in all this, we just may wind up being the landlord,” he said. “We have some abilities as a statewide institution that Temple College does not have.”

The chance to move forward very quickly and solidify TSTC’s commitment to the area was a big plus to this opportunity for Martinez.

“It would allow EWCHEC phase one and really phase two to happen much sooner than anticipated,” Martinez said. “Right now we have the plans for phase one but realistically the funding will probably take six months to maybe a year to secure if we go through the path we are thinking of. Then construction of the site would take another 18 months.”