JJC OKs $45M Multipurpose Building, Romeo Campus Expansion

The Joliet Junior College Board is forging ahead with plans to build a multipurpose building on its Joliet campus and to expand its Romeoville campus.

The projects will cost $45 million, funding through bonds the district will sell this summer following a formal board vote on July 30. A resolution confirming the board's intent to sell the bonds was approve June 18, according to a JJC news release.

Both projects were defined as priorities in the recently updated 2013 JJC Master Plan.

The money will be repaid through an increase in the capital assessment fee** charged to students, the release said. The actual cost to students has not been announced.

"A major goal of the board of trustees is to have JJC be the first choice of high school seniors when they choose a college," Board Chairman Andy Mihelich said in the release.

"To realize this goal, JJC needs to address all aspects of a student's development. Our plans for the multipurpose center and expansion of our Romeoville Campus will greatly help us be a better, more comprehensive community college whose focus is student learning."

The multipurpose facility was part of the college’s 2008 master plan but never built. Now part of the 2013 plan, it will be erected on the south side of JJC's Houbolt campus in Joliet, and will include space for athletics, physical education as well as a conference center and corporate training space, the release said.