BHC building renovation ‘finally coming all together’

Steven J. Frommelt looked over the massive renovation work being done to Black Hawk College’s Building 3 on the Moline campus. He looked at a Black Hawk mascot emblem being placed on a wall and told the workers “Good job.” One of them replied: “It’s finally coming all together.” Building 3 – the subject of […]

Steven J. Frommelt looked over the massive renovation work being done to Black Hawk College’s Building 3 on the Moline campus. He looked at a Black Hawk mascot emblem being placed on a wall and told the workers “Good job.” One of them replied: “It’s finally coming all together.” Building 3 – the subject of a $40.8 million renovation and expansion project – is finally coming together for the college and its students. In fact, many of those students will get a good look at the building as fall term classes start today, today, Aug. 19, on the Moline campus and in the 130,000-square-foot Building 3.

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The updated building offers more classroom space and a great learning environment for students, said Mr. Frommelt, Black Hawk’s vice president for finance and administration, during a media tour of the in-progress building Friday morning, Aug, 16. As part of the college’s Facilities Master Plan, Building 3 has undergone a major renovation that  includes science and health career labs, athletics and fitness spaces, classrooms, faculty offices and the BHC Police Department. The Building 3 renovation was announced in late 2022. Other features at the building include: eight natural science labs; four health science labs; seven science prep and storage rooms; five classrooms; a computer lab; food pantry and much more. A ribbon-cutting ceremony for Building 3 is scheduled for 9 a.m. Sept. 14. “It was time for an update … We have some of the best facilities here in the Midwest,” said Black Hawk College President Jeremy Thomas, during Friday’s tour of the updated three-store building. One of the stops on that tour was room 208, which is one of the science classrooms. Marilynn Bartels, a professor of biology at Black Hawk, showed off some of its features.  “I can’t wait to get students in this space. It’s brighter. It’s more open. … It’s really an exciting time,” she said. Ms. Bartels added that a few students have already gotten a quick look at the updated building. In the past few days, some students have stopped by the campus to find and see their classrooms. It’s been a thrill to “see the student's face light up” when they see the new building, she said. And there will be thousands of students at the Black Hawk campuses in Moline and Galva, Illinois. Mr. Thomas said he expects 4,000 or more students to be enrolled this term. “Our enrollment is trending up this fall. … The numbers are looking good,” he added. But while Building 3 will host many of those students for classes starting today, the building is still a work in progress. Much work still needs to be done. In fact, on Friday morning, the building’s first floor was filled with work crews painting walls and doing many other jobs, pallets full of supplies, carts filled with tools, and blueprints taped to walls. The remaining work on Building 3 is expected to be done in the next few weeks, said Mr. Frommelt. When the last of the work is complete on Building 3, the renovation projects will continue on the Black Hawk campus.  That next renovation will center on a $29.3 million update project on the college’s Building 2. That project has already started with the demolition phase and is scheduled to be done in the fall of 2025, according to the Black Hawk College Facebook page. “It’s really cool to watch all this progress,” said Mr. Thomas.