Bryant & Stratton College to expand two campuses
11-Jun-2010The Business Journal of Milwaukee
By Corrine Hess
June 11, 2010
Bryant & Stratton College is planning to expand its downtown Milwaukee and Wauwatosa campuses by this fall to accommodate growing enrollment in technology and health care programs.
The career college, which has three locations in the Milwaukee area, will ask the Milwaukee Board of Zoning Appeals for approval June 17 to expand at the Henry S. Reuss Federal Plaza building, 310 W. Wisconsin Ave. The school wants to add about 10,000 square feet to the campus and would occupy the fourth floor of the building’s west tower, said Peter Pavone, director of the college.
The additional space would be used for classrooms, labs and a student lounge, he said.
Currently, the school’s 1,000 students at the downtown location occupy 46,000 square feet on the second, fourth and fifth floors of the east tower in the building. Bryant & Stratton has been in the downtown building since 2001.
The college is also seeking approval from the city of Wauwatosa to expand its campus at 10950 W. Potter Road. The school currently occupies about 58 percent of the building, the former Empire Level Manufacturing Corp.
Pavone would like to remodel an additional 11,300 square feet to accommodate increasing enrollments at that campus.
Pavone declined to reveal how much the expansions would cost or how they would funded.
Bryant & Stratton’s enrollment has grown steadily in Milwaukee. In 2001, the college had about 200 students and now has about 2,000 students enrolled.
The school opened its third southeast Wisconsin campus August 2009 at Bayshore Town Center in Glendale.
Interest in career colleges has grown because of the economy, and the attention schools like Bryant & Stratton have gotten, Pavone said.
“People are finding that these degrees make a difference,” Pavone said. “They know they’re going to have something that 10 years from now will still help them have a career.”