Bryant & Stratton College is currently in negotiations to lease the former Racine Athletic Club in Mount Pleasant for a fourth southeastern Wisconsin campus location.
Greg Brandner, Bryant & Stratton Wisconsin market director, said the college is positioning itself to respond to educational demands in the Racine, Kenosha and Lake County, Illinois area.
“Large demand from that area is driving us to go where the students are,” Brandner said, noting more than 6 percent of Milwaukee-area students come from the three-county region and 11 percent of admission inquires come from the area as well.
New York-based Bryant & Stratton currently has three Wisconsin locations with 700 students in Wauwatosa, 382 in Milwaukee and 315 in Glendale as of fall 2016, according to National Center for Education Statistics data.
Any expansion in Racine County, and Mount Pleasant in particular, is now often seen in the context of Foxconn Technology Group’s decision to build its LCD panel campus there, but Brandner said that was not a factor.
“The decision to establish a location in Mount Pleasant was not driven by Foxconn, but that is a benefit,” he said.
The campus will be located at 1320 Warwick Way, just off Highway 20. The building is owned by an affiliate of Bear Development and has a 15,270-sqaure-foot footprint, according to documents submitted to the village. Bryant & Stratton is seeking to have the property rezoned to accommodate the new campus.
Lease negotiations are ongoing, but the college could start renovations as early as January and the projected move-in date is in May 2018.
The exact course offerings at the location will be determined closer to the completion of the project, but Brandner said there will likely be a focus on nursing and health care. Three-quarters of the college’s students from Racine, Kenosha and Lake counties are in nursing or health care programs and graduates in the field are in high-demand.
“We credit our longevity for our ability to create and offer educational programs to meet the specific and changing needs of students and employers,” Brandner said.
The new campus will include on-site medical labs and clinical simulation areas. The college anticipates accommodating 50 to 75 students in the first year with capacity for 300 students eventually.
