Why a planned Corry technology center will be located downtown instead of at former hospital

CORRY — A fiber optics system and education and training center planned for the former Corry Memorial Hospital will be located in downtown Corry instead.

Restrictions on the hospital property and renovation costs as high as $18 million prompted the nonprofit Impact Corry to team with another nonprofit, the Corry Higher Education Council, to develop the project at the Education Council building instead.

The Corry Area Technology Center and Hub will occupy about 8,000 square feet on the top two floors of the five-story building at 221 N. Center St.

The C.A.T.C.H. center will include a fiber node, a kind of command center for a fiber optic internet system that will serve Corry businesses and residents. The center will also house classrooms and labs for technology job training programs and co-working space for businesses.

"Businesses could compete on Wall Street or run animation gaming from a fiber node," Impact Corry Executive Director Chuck Gray said. "Operations that chew up bandwidth or are reliant on high-speed internet want to locate at a fiber node."

Cost to locate the center at the Higher Ed building is estimated at $7.8 million, including $2.5 million for fiber node construction, and $5.3 million for building renovations, classroom furnishings, lab equipment and curriculum.

The board of directors of Impact Corry and the Corry Higher Education Council have agreed to partner on the project.

"The agreement basically says that this funding is coming to the Higher Ed Council and it's leading renovations, and that this other money is staying with Impact Corry for the fiber node that will be ours," Gray said. "But the Higher Ed Council can take advantage of the fiber node as a commodity and the two organizations can work together to secure the rest of the matching funds needed."

Major funding already secured for the C.A.T.C.H. project, including a $2.5 million Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program grant from the Pennsylvania Office of the Budget, can be used by the new partnership to develop the center in its new location, Gray said.

"Because we essentially will be doing the same work and the focus of the grant is still on jobs that will be created by the project, the Office of the Budget approved the transfer of the funds for the project," Gray said.

Only one grant for the project was site-specific and can't be used for the C.A.T.C.H. center in its new location, Gray said. But the partnering nonprofits can reapply for that funding, she said.

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Switching sites

The major hurdle to renovating all or part of the 88,000-square-foot former hospital at 612 W. Smith St. was cost, including needed roof replacement, Gray said.

"Restrictions on the property transfer added to the renovation costs made it financially impossible and put not only the project but our organization at financial risk," Gray said. "Otherwise we would not have given up on that space. It's a landmark facility that people in Corry are attached to. We desperately wanted to resurrect it, but we couldn't risk it."

"With so many issues and questions about the hospital property, our board decided it could not proceed with being the anchor tenant there and that we should focus on this building and its potential," Higher Education Council Executive Director Matt Platz said.

The hospital building was donated for the project by the Pike family.

"We're incredibly grateful for their generosity," Gray said.

Locating the education and training hub at the Corry Higher Education Council instead will preserve another Corry landmark. The Higher Education Council building, originally the Corrian Hotel, was built in the early 1920s and is included in the Corry Downtown Historic District listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

And the downtown location will be a bonus, Gray said.

"We will get this energy from C.A.T.C.H. in our historic retail district. We will have the potential for expansion to capitalize on the fiber node. The Higher Ed Council won't have to move its offices to supply the education," Gray said. "And we're bringing vibrancy to a landmark building."

The building's top floors have been vacant since the hotel closed about 1990, Platz said. Renovations required for the C.A.T.C.H. center include adding an exterior elevator in the rear of the building. Its current elevator is aging and its shaft is too small to accommodate a larger elevator now required by building code, Platz said.

Current programs and future plans

The Corry Higher Education Center offers adult education and workforce training and provides classrooms for the Erie County Community College and the Northern Pennsylvania Regional College.

A partnership with Gannon University includes a satellite program for two Corry Area High School students to participate in Gannon's business development beehive program.

A new partnership with EC-Council will provide a certificate program in cybersecurity.

The new Corry Area Technology Center and Hub will focus on training for additional technology jobs, including aviation, fiber installation and coding.

"What we're creating is a workforce talent pipeline for the digital economy," Gray said.

Impact Corry and the Corry Higher Education Council hope to have the C.A.T.C.H. center open in 2025, possibly with a rooftop lounge or restaurant to provide additional operating revenues.

"It's the advantage of having a flat roof and the best view in Corry," Platz said.

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Contact Valerie Myers at vmyers@timesnews.com.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Planned Corry PA technology center has a new site: Corry Higher Ed