Work is about to begin on Spoon River College’s long-planned renovation of a former retail building on East Jackson Street in Macomb.
“Since we don’t have much ground to break, we’re actually talking with the governor’s office about doing a wall breaking,” said SRC President Curt Oldfield.
“We would have pieces of drywall that everybody could symbolically break.”
The college is working to coordinate schedules with the governor’s office so that Governor J.B. Pritzker can attend the wall breaking, probably in July or August.
Oldfield anticipated holding a preconstruction meeting during the first week of June, and construction could begin in July.
The project will take place indoors, which means contractors won’t experience weather-related delays.
Oldfield said work should be substantially completed by the end of May, 2025, and he believe SRC will start holding classes there in August 2025.
“I told our staff the other day, I’m still not going to celebrate too much until I see people every day at the facility working,” Oldfield said.
The price tag is nearly $16.5 million. $6.5 million comes from a Rebuild Illinois grant. The college issued bonds to cover the rest of the cost.
The campus will allow SRC to expand its career and tech programs in Macomb.
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