VMASC, Tri-Cities Center To Get New Facilities

Old Dominion recently awarded a development agreement to HRC One LLC to develop two new facilities for its Tri-Cities Higher Education Center and Virginia Modeling, Analysis and Simulation Center (VMASC) along the I-664 corridor. Both centers are currently located on the Portsmouth campus of Tidewater Community College.

The Tri-Cities Center, which serves the residents of Chesapeake, Portsmouth and Suffolk, will be located in Portsmouth, while the facility for VMASC, which has evolved into a major force in Hampton Roads’ economic development picture, will be in Suffolk. The buildings will be the centerpiece of the planned MAST (Modeling, Analysis, Simulation and Technology) Center, a 32-acre research, education and technology park.

ODU’s Tri-Cities Center offers upper-level undergraduate classes, as well as graduate classes and certificate programs. Once built, the center’s new home will add more courses and programs, including those in support of the three-city area’s workforce initiatives.

The buildings are expected to be completed by the start of the fall 2007 semester, according to Robert Fenning, vice president for administration and finance, who is overseeing the project.

The $10.2 million Tri-Cities Center, which is being financed through general obligation bonds and developer equity, will be owned and operated by Old Dominion and maintained privately. It will accommodate the electronic classrooms and labs for upper-division undergraduate courses in various academic disciplines, as well as selected graduate programs. Space will also be set aside for selected TCC classrooms, labs and faculty offices.

VMASC, which in November announced the selection of Col. Michael McGinnis, head of the Department of Systems Engineering at the U.S. Military Academy, as its new director, is a not-for-profit collaborative center that partners with academia, industry and government in the areas of modeling, simulation and visualization research, development and education; and leveraging, promoting and cultivating simulation technology expertise through industry, government and academia. The center offers both master’s and doctoral degrees.