A new master campus plan that an architectural firm has developed for Alamance Community College outlines a range of between $47.5 million and $77.5 million in new facilities and renovations of existing buildings to accommodate future growth in ACC’s programs and enrollment.
ACC president Dr. Ken Ingle said in a recent interview with The Alamance News that he isn’t planning to ask Alamance County commissioners to place a bond referendum for the community college on the ballot in 2026. State law currently allows North Carolina counties to hold bond referendums on the day of a primary or general election during even-numbered years.
“That may change, but we don’t plan to ask for one [a bond referendum] in 2026,” Ingle told the newspaper. ACC will instead be looking at “alternative funding sources” for the construction of new facilities or renovations to existing buildings as the need arises, he said.
Ingle and other ACC officials described the latest iteration of the campus master plan, during a brief discussion with the college’s trustees in early September, as a document that evaluates “several potential avenues for the expansion and development of the campus” to align with future growth.
ACC’s total headcount – which includes students in degree- or credential-bearing curriculum programs, continuing education, Career & College Promise (dually-enrolled high school students), and the Basic Skills program – by 9.3 percent between 2023-24 and 2024-25, according to enrollment data from the state Community Colleges System (NCCCS).
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The state’s enrollment data for ACC appears to include the total number of students who were enrolled at ACC during the fall, spring, and/or summer terms during the two previous academic years, which the NCCCS refers to as “reporting years.”
ACC’s total headcount increased by 1,153 students from 12,408 students in 2023-24 to 13,561 students in 2024-25, according to the latest data available from the NCCCS.
“As you know,” ACC trustee chairman Julie Scott Emmons told her fellow trustees at their September meeting, “there are many variables, funding and things we would be dependent on.”
The new campus master plan gives no timeframes for new construction or renovations to ACC facilities. Nor were any representatives from the firm that developed the plan for ACC – Baltimore-based Hord Coplan Macht, which has an office in Charlotte – on hand when the plan was presented to ACC’s trustees during their September meeting.
ACC trustee and building/grounds committee chairman Bill Gomory suggested that ACC could explore a partnership for its future health sciences expansion, one of the facility projects that the master plan identifies as a priority. “[We] could partner with the new hospital coming into Mebane, once that’s determined who that’s going to be,” Gomory said before state regulators had announced whether Cone Health or Duke Novant would be approved build a hospital in Mebane.
The state Department of Health and Human Services has since announced its approval of a Certificate of Need for Cone Health to build a 46-bed acute care hospital in Mebane, which is targeted for opening in 2029.
Top-line priorities
The more expensive option, at $77.5 million, calls for the potential construction of several new buildings and renovations to five existing buildings and/or programs (see accompanying chart).
The new facilities include:
- A new $32.4 million health sciences building to replace the Powell/Allied Health building that opened in 2008;
- A new, second new $3.1 million student services center that would be combined with a new $14.8 million new corporate education/conference center and parking expansion that could be built beside the Biotechnology Center of Excellence;
- An $8.2 million new campus facilities building.
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The consultants from Hord Coplan Macht (HCM) concluded, after meeting with ACC staff, faculty, and staff earlier this year, that the construction of a new, three-story, 48,000-square facility would allow for the consolidation of all health science programs and providing “a long-term solution” for expanding the dental program by adding 16 to 18 dental chairs, private rooms, and a fully-operational dental clinic. The new facility would also house the new radiology, respiratory, and sonography programs that ACC plans to begin offering in the fall of 2027.
The new, three story building would also include renovating 31,420 square feet in the Powell Building that could be repurposed for other science programs.
The plan notes that enrollment for degree-seeking students in the nursing program (60 students) has outpaced the number that the existing space was designed for (40 students). The consultants also said that gym space is needed for the Occupational Therapy Assistant and Physical Therapy Assistant programs.
A less-expensive option to consolidating the health science programs under a single roof would be to build a 33,000-square foot addition onto the Powell Building, which is estimated to cost $22.3 million.
“This addition is designed to accommodate future growth, improve internal circulation, and enhance the college’s ability to support high-demand healthcare education,” ACC’s campus master plan states.
New student support services center
HCM’s consultants also concluded that the 13,189-square foot Student Services Center that opened on ACC’s main campus in the spring of 2023 is inadequate to meet current and future demands.
The master plan calls for “additional areas for collaboration, quiet study, and informal connection,” as well as outdoor dining and seating, while maintaining close proximity to academic advising services that are slated to move to the Literacy Building and will require up to 12 additional offices.
The architects have suggested that a minimum expansion of 6,825 square feet to the Student Services Center is needed for additional offices and other “flexible” spaces that could be used for a variety of purposes throughout the day.
The more expensive option would be to build a second, 26,900-square foot student services center, estimated to cost $3.1 million, beside the Biotechnology Center of Excellence.
The plan also includes a lesser-expensive option: construction of a $ 2.9 million, 20,000-square foot second-story addition onto the existing Student Services Center.
Corporate education/conference center
A third new facility that the architects explored but ultimately recommended against called for the construction of a new standalone, 20,000-square foot corporate education center (to provide continuing education for professionals employed in Alamance County business and industry) and a “dedicated event and conference space” that, according to the campus master plan, has been identified as a pressing need.
“Currently there is no large venue on campus, and existing facilities are inadequate,” the master plan states. “The auditorium in the Main Building lacks flexibility, and the Biotechnology Center’s first floor – frequently used for events – has limited capacity.”
Instead, the consultants recommended combining the “Corporate Ed/Conference Center” with the second new student services center that would be built next to the Biotechnology Center of Excellence on the Graham campus. The conference center to could accommodate up to 200 event attendees and feature roundtable space and common areas, which is estimated (as of 2025) to cost $14.8 million on the high end, or $11 million for a smaller, 20,000-square foot option.
The cost to build the second new student support services building ($3.1 million), with a 26,900 corporate ed/conference center ($14.8 million), is estimated at an approximate total of $17.9 million, based on the prices listed in ACC’s new master plan.
New campus facilities building
The fourth and final new facility – a 20,400-square foot building estimated to cost $8.2 million – would enable ACC to consolidate shipping/receiving, groundskeeping, maintenance, and storage into a single facility, according to the master plan.
This facility would be build next to the Advanced Applied Technology Center (AATC) that opened in 2017 and fronts Jimmie Kerr Road – a location that the consultants says provides
a significant logistical advantage, in that it would route delivery trucks away from the center of the campus.
Other renovations
ACC’s campus master plan also lists approximately $4 million in renovations, expansions, and upgrades to existing facilities.
The smaller upgrades include: installing 24 new welding booths in the AATC; moving the Dental Assisting program to the daycare facility on a lower level of the Main Building; replacing windows that don’t meet current standards for energy efficiency; and cleaning and recoating building facades that have become discolored by grime and water stains due to years of weather exposure.
Previous master plan called for $53.1M in new facilities and renovations
A previous iteration of ACC’s long-range facilities plan that the trustees adopted in 2016 ultimately provided the underpinning for a $39.6 million bond referendum voters approved in November 2018.
The previous iteration of ACC’s “master plan” called for the construction of several new facilities – including the Biotechnology Center of Excellence and Student Services Center that opened in 2023 and the Public Safety Training Center that officially opened this fall – and renovations throughout the Graham campus, which had been estimated to cost $53.1 million when the plan was adopted.
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Several of the smaller projects incorporated into the 2016 master plan, such as renovating a portion of the B Building on the Graham campus, were instead funded by proceeds from ACC’s $6.1 million share of the proceeds from the statewide $2 billion Connect NC bond referendum approved in March 2016.
Several projects that ACC had planned to complete with the $39.6 million county bond referendum that passed in November 2018 were also later scaled back or eliminated entirely (such as satellite campuses planned for the eastern and western sides of the county) due to inflation in material and labor costs amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
ACC’s trustees voted 12-0 to accept the master plan but took no additional action on it after a brief discussion at their September meeting.
The trustees had approved the contract with HCM to develop the master plan in October 2024, which was budgeted at $35,000 and paid for with county capital funding that Alamance County’s commissioners allocated to ACC for the 2024-25 fiscal year.
