With the state back on board, CLC's $48 million Waukegan project resumes
College of Lake County's stalled $48 million project to build a new six-story building and renovate existing buildings on its Waukegan campus has officially restarted.
The CLC board of trustees on Tuesday approved an intergovernmental agreement with the state, which is funding around $34 million of the project cost.
Board Chairman Richard Anderson said he is very excited the oft-delayed project has resumed.
"It is so fantastic. The people of Waukegan deserve this building," Anderson said. "I'm just ecstatic that it is back on track."
The project's goal is to create more of a campus feel for the campus in Waukegan, which is made up almost entirely of buildings the college purchased and renovated. The biggest change is adding a new six-story building that will have classrooms and student services facilities, as well as a community space on the top floor with uninterrupted views of Lake Michigan.
The building will be on vacant land next to an existing college building at 111 N. Genesee St.
Legat Architects, the firm CLC contracted in 2013 to design the project, is expected to have its updated construction documents ready by July 2019. Construction is to begin in December 2019 and the building is scheduled to be open in fall 2022.
That means the building will be completed around nine years after it was first announced by former Gov. Patrick Quinn in 2013. The project went on the shelf in June 2015 because of the state's financial turmoil.
Anderson, who was first elected to the CLC board in 1974, said he is used to seeing new governors halt capital projects for a few months so they can be analyzed. The difference this time, he said, was Gov. Bruce Rauner took longer to restart it.
Last June, CLC spent around $1 million of the $14 million earmarked for the project to have Legat get back to drawing designs and making plans so the project could move quickly once state funding resumed.
Also on Tuesday, the CLC board extended its contract with Legat to extend throughout the new project timeline. The contract will pay the company around $166,000.