Turning a failed business center into a center of learning
Published: Friday, November 19, 2010 12:14 AM CST
Jim Smith and Gail Paparian
For the Record Gazette

The mid-term elections are over and when the dust settles Measure U will not have the necessary 55 percent votes to bring a new Mt. San Jacinto campus to Banning.

The Measure U bond proposal couldn’t have been floated at a more economically starved period in recent history. Many of us who supported and voted for Measure U realized that the timing and people incurring any more debt would be an uphill battle; and so it was. The silver lining is that the charge could be mounted again in two years, or so, with another bond, with a more positive result.

Meanwhile, we have a project that remains unfinished at the corner of Lincoln and 8th Street. The city has invested substantial funds in seeing the Banning Business Center become a reality and we believe that can still happen.

So, we have a community college without a campus and a huge business center idle and unfinished. A perfect fit for a partnership between the City of Banning and MSJC. Bring Mt. San Jacinto College to Banning and install the operation in the Banning Business Center (names are easily changed to reflect its use). In short here is a five-year plan that would be a win-win for the City of Banning and the college.

Obviously if and when the City of Banning and Mt. San Jacinto College gather to brainstorm the many values of this idea, a first and necessary step would be to bring in the state architects to make certain this temporary campus lives up to state education and architectural codes.

The reason we’re suggesting this as a five-year plan is quite simple; from beginning to end, it should take about five years from incubation, to open for operation, to having enough money to build the ultimate permanent campus in Banning and return the Banning Business Center to a fully functional and tenant-occupied business center.

Everybody wins. The City of Banning policymakers get awards and accolades for turning a shell of a building into a thriving center; while the college has a formidable opportunity to bring students of all ages to the Pass in one location; not spread out in temporary buildings and using high school classrooms at night. This would become the Pass’ instant campus where students of all ages feel like they are truly attending a college. The permanent campus would be constructed but this interim campus would allow classes to begin and continue while financing is put in place.

We have not determined how many of the available buildings would be finished first. It would depend on several factors, including projected enrollment over the next five years. Support-businesses would be encouraged as tenants in the center like: book store, coffee shop, restaurant, banks and more. The easy freeway access on 8th Street is an additional bonus.

While the city and the college show the overwrought  bond-paying public that they are capable of achieving success with entrepreneurial thinking and cooperation, a new bond could be floated to ultimately finish the permanent site on Sunset and Lincoln in Banning.

The ultimate goal, at the end of the five-year plan, will see the Banning Business Center transform into what it was intended to be ... a thriving business center.

We envision the property to serve as a mini-outlet mall that would focus on selling goods for family oriented activities like camping, fishing, boating, golf, etc. It would be non-competitive to the existing Cabazon Outlets. Instead, it would offer different wares; thereby truly operating with a regional approach to capture the hundreds of thousands of drivers who travel the I-10 on a daily basis. Details on accomplishing this will be presented later.

To our knowledge, nobody has successfully predicted when the course of our economy will head in a more positive direction. Instead of waiting for possible federal stimulus money or seeing the state of California’s budget return to the black, we are suggesting a profitable, sensible and logical partnership between the City of Banning and Mt. San Jacinto College.

There couldn’t be a better time for the people of Banning to show pride in our community by embracing this idea. There are enough people who voted for Measure U who understood the benefits that having a college campus in Banning would be to current and future citizens. There will be new and better jobs to offer, more places to shop that will generate sales tax and students from all ages and walks of life will have the benefit of an “instant” college campus, while the final one will continue to be planned and financed.

When the interim campus transitions to the final site, the business center will then be transformed into what it was intended to be, a business center. With the bottom floor used for revenue generating sales tax, the upper levels could certainly accommodate the business needs that will be created when the courthouse construction is finished.

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Jim Smith and Gail Paparian live in Banning and have been active in the community.