Ivy Tech Buys Batesville Building

Press release from Ivy Tech Community College

Ivy Tech Community College has purchased the Forethought Building on State Road 46 as its new Batesville location.

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(Batesville, Ind.) - Ivy Tech Community College and Forethought Financial Group, Inc. have approved and signed an agreement concerning the purchase of the Batesville Forethought facility.

The agreement culminates months of meetings and negotiations by numerous representatives of the involved entities.  The City of Batesville, Batesville Community Schools, area businesses and industries, and local residents are supporting the College’s efforts to expand its presence in Batesville, Ripley County and along the I-74 Corridor.

During the negotiations process, Ivy Tech President Thomas J. Snyder emphasized Indiana’s largest college has made a commitment to invest in Batesville and to expand Ivy Tech programs, classes, job training, and job certifications.  Snyder also indicated the site would house a manufacturing training center.

Ivy Tech Southeast Chancellor James Helms echoed Snyder’s remarks, saying, “The Forethought purchase completes a long-range goal for the Southeast region to have some of the finest facilities in the state.” 

A $19 million Ivy Tech Southeast campus building at Madison was dedicated in October 2008.  In August of 1999 the College opened a full Lakefront campus in Lawrenceburg on Industrial Drive, which resulted from the cooperation of the College, City of Lawrenceburg, and the State of Indiana.  The Lakefront facility quickly grew to capacity.  Then, in August 2006 Ivy Tech began classes in a second campus, the five-story Riverfront building at 50 Walnut Street, Lawrenceburg, and continues to operate both sites.  As with the Lakefront building, the Riverfront facility was made possible through the cooperation of the City of Lawrenceburg.

In 2011 Jim Helms, Chancellor; Jeff Terp, Ivy Tech’s Senior Vice President for Engagement and Institutional Efficiency; and regional Executive Director of Finance Jeff Hollkamp, met with John A. Graf, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Forethought Financial Group, Inc. to discuss a potential sale of the building.  Ivy Tech officially became owner of the 120,000 square feet structure on June 1, 2012. 

Ivy Tech has already engaged architects to redesign space for college use, including multimedia classrooms, health, nursing, science and computer labs, a manufacturing job training center, office areas, a library, bookstore, and numerous other special-use areas, including a conference center.  Obtaining the Forethought building and renovation of space to college specifications enables, for the first time in Batesville, a full-campus offering of classes, programs and services utilizing contemporary state-of-the-art equipment.  Ivy Tech becomes the only full-campus, postsecondary institution on the I-74 Corridor between Ohio and Indianapolis.

Forethought will remain in the One Forethought Center building.  According to David Mullen, Senior Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer of Forethought, “Forethought is committed to putting our assets to work to create the most value possible.  We are pleased to have the opportunity to partner with Ivy Tech to get the most value from this building that has been our home for more than 20 years.  We believe that providing access to a first-class learning environment will support Ivy Tech’s important role in strengthening our economy and our community by providing valuable training and education programs to area residents.”

In reference to Forethought’s continued use of the building, Mullen stated, “The Batesville office is the core operations center for Forethought.  This facility continues to expand and performs all of the operations functions ranging from licensing and contracting, new business administration, claims, and policy owner service.”

Ivy Tech Southeast has campuses at Lawrenceburg and Madison and an instructional site at Batesville.  The region serves Dearborn, Jefferson, Ripley, Ohio and Switzerland Counties as well as the surrounding area.  Ivy Tech Southeast offers Indiana in-state tuition for residents of Hamilton and Butler Counties in Ohio and residents of Boone, Gallatin, Carroll and Trimble in northern Kentucky.  Ivy Tech Community College offers the lowest rate of tuition in the State of Indiana. 

Ivy Tech Community College is the state’s largest public postsecondary institution and the nation’s largest singly accredited statewide community college system serving nearly 200,000 students annually.  Ivy Tech has campuses throughout Indiana.  It serves as the state’s engine of workforce development, offering affordable degree programs and training that are aligned with the needs of its community along with courses and programs that transfer to other colleges and universities in Indiana.  Ivy Tech is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission and is a member of the North Central Association.

LINKS:

Ivy Tech Plans Batesville Announcement

Ivy Tech Pursuing Batesville Expansion

Ivy Tech Seeking $3.5M From Batesville, Schools