Germanna Community College acquires 2 buildings for North Stafford expansion

Germanna Community College announced an expansion in Stafford County with the purchase of its new $15 million Stafford Center of Educational Excellence at Center Street.

Two buildings, named the Barbara J. Fried Center at 10 Center Street and the Kevin L. Dillard Health Sciences Center at 25 Center Street, totaling over 74,000 square feet, both just off Route 610 in North Stafford, will meet Germanna’s space requirements in Stafford for the foreseeable future, said Jack Rowley, president of GCC’s Real Estate Foundation.  “This purchase will help Germanna to double student enrollment in the critically needed Allied Health Services – especially nursing,” he said. In addition, Germanna will be expanding cybersecurity, IT, general education, and dual enrollment programs.

In 2018, Germanna leased an 18,921-square-foot building in Stafford that more than tripled the space available at a 5,000-square-foot GCC center opened at Aquia in 2009. The new facilities will eventually replace the building acquired in 2018, and will more than triple that existing space.

“Germanna can move forward with this expansion because of major community donors” who have donated $4.5 million, Rowley said. “There is very strong student need and local support to have this major educational center in Stafford, which has the largest population of any locality served by Germanna.”

Not counting noncredit workforce training students, Germanna has 3191 students from Stafford this year and that number is projected to grow to 3693 by 2025.

The Germanna Educational Foundation’s Real Estate Foundation worked closely with Next Tier Connect to make the deal work. The Next Tier group of companies engages in real estate development with a focus on mission-critical assets. Next Tier Connect at Quantico is a 270,000-square-foot Mission Critical campus that supports Marine Corp. Base Quantico and the surrounding community.

“We are delighted to have GCC as part of our campus, and we look forward to acting as a long-term partner in support of their growth,” Sam Peskin, managing director of Next Tier said.

David Spiewak, Next Tier senior managing director, said: “The proximity of our campus to Marine Base Quantico’s provides a natural location for defense contractors serving the growing cyber security and law enforcement community, and GCC’s investment significantly elevates our ability to support this vital work.”

Construction to modify the buildings to meet Germanna’s needs will begin soon. Classes will begin at the new Germanna Stafford campus by the Fall of 2024.