Trident Technical College opened the South Carolina Aeronautical Training Center on Friday with a ribbon cutting and tours at its North Charleston campus off Rivers Avenue, The Post and Courier reported.

The nearly $80 million, 218,000-square-foot building will train students and others for jobs with Boeing and other aerospace companies, according to the newspaper.

College President Mary Thornley said she realized South Carolina needed an aeronautical training center on Nov. 20, 2009, the day Boeing broke ground on its 787 assembly building in North Charleston.

“I realized the whole state was going to be different from that day on,” Thornley said, according to The Post and Courier. “We had to step up our game.”

Boeing’s Dreamliner campus now employs nearly 6,800 workers, the newspaper reported.

What’s inside

The three-story building, designed by LS3P and T.Y. Lin|Lindbergh of Charleston, brings the college’s aircraft assembly, maintenance and avionics programs to one location, according to The Post and Courier. Those programs had been spread across two campuses and five buildings.

The center includes an aircraft ramp, two hangars with high bays for aircraft and large training aids, 22 classrooms, 25 specialty labs, 37 offices, meeting space, a cafe and a catering kitchen, the newspaper reported. The labs hold $14 million worth of equipment, including programmable robots, 3D printers and computer numerical control machines. A composite materials lab will teach students to make and repair the structural materials used in airplanes, vehicles and boats.

About 5,370 students and 120 faculty and staff will use the building, which also has space for readySC, the state’s workforce training program, according to the newspaper.

The third floor will be reserved for Boeing and readySC, the Summerville Journal Scene reported in June. Boeing needs more room to recertify its aircraft maintenance employees each year, Bob Walker, Trident Tech’s vice president for continuing education and economic development, said then.

“Boeing is the reason for the aeronautical cluster in our state,” Walker said.

Who paid for it

The building drew on several funding sources, according to figures from Trident Tech published by The Post and Courier:

  • $48.4 million from the South Carolina Legislature
  • $18.75 million from Charleston County
  • $1 million in cash and $337,000 in road improvements from the city of North Charleston
  • $8.1 million in cash and land from Trident Tech
  • $2.47 million in federal grants

The Zucker family also gave a $6 million sustainability gift, according to the college.

Meg Howle, the college’s vice president for advancement, said in June that the Legislature’s share was an unprecedented amount for a technical college to receive for a single building, according to the Journal Scene.

“We sold this to the Legislature as a statewide asset,” she said.

Trident Tech broke ground on the center Nov. 4, 2016, according to the city of North Charleston.

More than airplanes

The center’s mission has grown since the plans were drawn, The Post and Courier reported. Volvo Cars and Mercedes-Benz Vans have added production sites in the Lowcountry, so the center will also train workers in advanced manufacturing.

On Friday, the college announced a partnership with France’s Dassault Systemes, which makes design and engineering software used by Volvo, Mercedes-Benz and Boeing. Dassault will set up a “3-D Experience Center” at the college where students can become certified in its software, according to the newspaper.

The aerospace industry in South Carolina includes 400 companies and 22,000 jobs and contributes $19 billion a year to the economy, The Post and Courier reported.

“South Carolina’s aerospace industry has grown over 25 percent since 2010,” said Adrianne Beasley, director of SC Aerospace, a public-private collaborative, according to the newspaper. “Along with that growth comes the need for a skilled workforce today and a pipeline of talent in the future.”

Thornley said the building is also meant to inspire. It is laid out so school groups can tour it and watch the equipment in use.

“Students don’t get excited about something until they can see, touch and experience it,” she said, according to The Post and Courier. “This is where that magic will happen.”

Business and political leaders at Friday’s ceremony included Gov. Henry McMaster; state Sen. Hugh Leatherman; Anita Zucker, CEO of The InterTech Group; Charleston County Council Chairman Elliott Summey; Lane Ballard, Boeing’s vice president of 787 delivery and paint for the North Charleston campus; and Dean Marsh, managing director of Dassault Systemes, the newspaper reported.