Kingsmill: Building to undergo construction spring 2015

The Kingsmill building will bear the name of Fanshawe in 2017, when the School of Information Technology moves into its new home. Tourism & Hospitality will move in the year following.

Construction for the building will begin as early as spring of next year.

Harry Bakker executive director of Facilities Management and Community Safety at Fanshawe says the whole process has been underway for three years now.

“There were a couple of places we actively looked at that subsequently turned out that weren’t going to be favourable for us,” he said. “When [the] Kingsmills announced they were going to be retiring it really presented us with an opportunity – as unfortunate as it was and a blow to the city – it’s kind of cool and neat that as one door closes another one opens.”

The choices of moving the schools of Information Technology and Tourism & Hospitality were made to ensure the programs would be a good fit in the downtown core.

“This gives us a great access point and a great opportunity for both the community and our students to live, work, play and learn in the downtown setting,” Bakker said. “Students can benefit from businesses and the businesses can benefit from our students.”

The move for Tourism & Hospitality comes at an opportune time, as the School is looking to update its kitchens.

“You need to stay contemporary, so there will be a significant investment going down in the future,” Bakker said. “It’s almost like the perfect storm, where a couple of needs are all coming together that you’re matching up needs and opportunity at the same time.”

With it, Saffron’s Restaurant will also be relocating, sure to be beneficial for future students.

“The move will give an opportunity for students to continue to learn their trade and apply and practice their profession,” Bakker said. “It can give them a different diverse grouping within the community who may want to help the students with that learning process by being a patron.”

Tourism & Hospitality chair Greg Masters hopes the updated facilities will attract future students from beyond a 100 km catchment area.

“By having attractive facilities and state-of-the-art technologies and all the things we expect to have in our new facility – now you can start to attract people from Ottawa that will come to Fanshawe and not go to Algonquin,” he said. “They will come to Fanshawe out of choice. You become one of the leading colleges in Ontario.”

Masters and Jim Edwards, chair of the School of Information Technology are being consulted – small pieces in the wheel Masters insists.

“It is a team effort. It’s not something Jim or I can do by ourselves,” he said. “We’ve involved our key faculty to ensure that what we must have – the must haves versus the nice-to-have elements.”

“That’s where I consult them is they’re in contact with the students every day. We’ve consulted with them to ensure that we have their input.”

Staff and students are encouraged to bring any ideas to program co-ordinators, Bakker says.

The loss of Kingsmill is bitter for long-time Londoners, but Bakker says there’s a benefit to seeing Fanshawe flourish in the downtown core.

“It’s not going to be sitting as an empty, derelict building,” he said. “Being able to continue on where Kingsmill has been and what they’ve achieved, we will continue on.”