Thursday, March 28, 2024

The NEON District is getting a huge addition via TCC

A rendering of the TCC Center for Visual, Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management. (Southside Daily Photo/courtesy of TCC)
A rendering of the TCC Center for Visual, Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management. (Southside Daily Photo/courtesy of TCC)

NORFOLK — Tidewater Community College will have a new addition in the NEON District here in partnership with the city, according to Mayor Kenneth Cooper Alexander’s state of the city address.

The 47,000-square-foot Patricia & Douglas Perry TCC Center for Visual & Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management, which will be built where the former Greyhound bus station at the corner of Brambleton and Monticello avenues are, is expected to open in summer 2020.

The center will transform Norfolk’s NEON District by providing increased educational and economic opportunities for the community and all of Hampton Roads, Alexander said.

The city is donating the site of the former Greyhound bus station to the TCC Real Estate Foundation.

“This is an incredible opportunity to build on the vibrancy and opportunity that is being created in the NEON District,” Alexander said. “We are extremely grateful for the support of the Perry family, and their ongoing efforts to make Norfolk a destination for the arts and culture.”

The project will be funded entirely by private donations raised through Go Further! TCC’s Campaign for a Competitive Workforce, according to a news release from TCC.

Patricia and Douglas Perry are the lead donors in the initiative.

The collaboration among the city, the Patricia and Douglas Perry Foundation and the college is “a transformative moment for TCC and Norfolk,” said TCC President Edna V. Baehre-Kolovani.

It will further energize the NEON District and nearby St. Paul’s area by:

  • Expanding TCC’s one-of-a-kind visual arts education program.
  • Training the next generation of chefs with a comprehensive culinary arts program.
  • Creating opportunities for collaboration between culinary and visual arts programs.
  • Providing, among five culinary program kitchens, a test kitchen open to the community and prospective entrepreneurs.
  • Inaugurating a program in hospitality and restaurant management.
  • Providing dual-enrollment opportunities for Norfolk high school students and workforce education to residents.
  • Creating a vibrant and inviting dining and arts experience for students, residents and visitors.

“This is such an exciting moment for us,” Kolovani said. “The City of Norfolk and Pat and Doug Perry are providing us with ‘a perfect storm’ of opportunity. I am grateful for their partnership and their trust in TCC.”

For information about the college’s visual arts, culinary arts and hospitality management programs, contact the enrollment team at enroll@tcc.edu.

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