Special to the Sentinel

Campuses of Georgia Highlands College and the University of West Georgia will relocate to the old Cub Foods building on Stewart Parkway next year.

Douglasville has signed a 10-year agreement with Block and Kahan Properties and the University System of Georgia (USG) to place both facilities in the 44,000 square-foot building, according to Jamie Gilbert, executive director of the Douglasville Development Authority. In a special meeting last month, the authority held a special meeting to approve the agreements after working out a few last details.

The building’s renovation, estimated at $1.5 million, will include seven classrooms, a wet and dry lab with a common prep area, an auditorium, faculty offices, a student lounge, library and conference room, Gilbert said.

Georgia Highlands opened its doors here in time for the 2009 fall semester and has been offering classes in modular units at Chapel Hill High School. The two-year college offers core curriculum courses that are transferable to other colleges in the university system and serves sites in Rome, Cartersville, Marietta Dallas and Douglasville.

Dr. Randy Pierce, the college’s president, said he believes it is meeting a vital need for the area.

“Douglasville and Douglas County are growing at an incredibly rapid rate,” he said. “Until we arrived, students who wanted to study at a USG institution had a rather inconvenient commute. Now they can do so in their own community.”

Students’ options will expand with the addition of more core and upper level courses when the new facility opens, he said.

The University of West Georgia is still formulating its plans to determine which programs are most needed here so that those programs can be offered to students who complete the core curriculum provided by Georgia Highlands.

“There has been discussion to offer courses in education and business and perhaps criminology,” said Dr. Sandra Stone, acting vice president of academic affairs at UWG. “We would like to begin offering undergraduate classes there in fall 2010, but right now, our ability to do so will depend on funding.”

She said the university remains committed to the project.

City officials are happy to see the colleges increase their presence, since Douglasville several years ago was identified by the USG as being under served by the university system, Gilbert said. They believe it will have a positive impact on the economy.

“The expansion of higher education institutions in Douglasville is a major priority for the city,” Mayor Mickey Thompson said. “Georgia Highlands College and University of West Georgia’s move to Douglasville provides an excellent opportunity for our residents to further their skills and education.

“In a tough economy, this gives us a competitive advantage by providing additional programs that will further advance our workforce.”

Darren Bak, chairman of the authority, said the recruitment of the two colleges follows one of the goals the authority outlined in its recently completed economic development strategic plan.

“We want to establish a concentration of universities and colleges in Douglasville.” Bak said. “The future strength of the city’s economy is tied to our ability to grow businesses that are based on human capital. Higher education begins to move us in that direction and provides us with the workforce needed to support a variety of knowledge-based companies.”

On November 2, the city council authorized Mayor Mickey Thompson to sign a contract with USG giving them options on 50 acres of property the city owns and is located at the entrance to 136 acres on Bright Star Road adjacent to Bright Star United Methodist Church. The contract was contingent on USG constructing and operating a public college on the site not sooner than 2017, City Manager Bill Osborne said earlier.