Leaps and Bounds for Muskegon Community College

By: Emily Guiles

Muskegon Community College recently bought the old Muskegon Chronicle Building located in Downtown Muskegon. The estimated investment to renovate the Muskegon Chronicle Building, according to college president Dale Nesbary, will be 13 million dollars. This facility will be used to house MCC’s applied Technology programs.

Muskegon Community College is starting to move more of their programs into the Downtown area, starting with the Chronicle Building, and now they are adding the former Masonic Temple building located at 396 West Clay Avenue.

The Masonic Temple was donated to the college by entrepreneurs Jon Rooks and Nick Sarnicola. A permanent endowment of 200,000 dollars has also been donated, 10,000 dollars of which will go towards an annual entrepreneurship award for students.

The entrepreneurship program chair Dave Stradal said that the Masonic Temple will be renamed the Rooks-Sarnicola Center for Entrepreneurial Studies.

When completed the Masonic Temple building will have a Barnes and Nobles Inc. bookstore and a Starbucks on location.

This gift to MCC has come at a remarkable time when Downtown Muskegon is in the process of rebuilding with the Watch Muskegon Go campaign and this endeavor can only help the restructuring.