Chattanooga State Community College will break ground Thursday on a new higher education center in Rhea County.
The 30,000-square-foot facility will house programs, including welding, automation, robotics, electrical, computer support technician and emergency medicine, a news release said. It is tentatively scheduled to open in January 2026.
Currently, the community college’s academic and applied technology programs in Rhea County are housed in a former Dayton high school. The new building will expand and enhance what the college is already doing in the county, Tennessee Board of Regents Chancellor Flora Tydings previously told the Chattanooga Times Free Press.
(READ MORE: Chatt State building to house cosmetology, massage programs)
If you go
— What: Rhea County Higher Education Center groundbreaking
— When: 2 p.m. Thursday
— Where: 815 Delaware Ave., Dayton
Source: Chattanooga State Community College
The facility is projected to cost $20 million and was approved by the Tennessee State Building Commission in July 2023. It was funded as part of the nearly $1 billion Tennessee lawmakers dedicated to building and improving 29 facilities at Tennessee Colleges of Applied Technology across the state in the 2024 fiscal year budget.
Those funds also allowed Chattanooga State officials in August to break ground on a new training facility at its main campus on Amnicola Highway for students in service-based professional programs.
— Compiled by Shannon Coan