A $2.8 million industrial training center will be built by Iowa Central Community College in Storm Lake.

Students will learn trades such as welding and industrial mechanics there. Training programs tailored to specific businesses, like Tyson Foods in Storm Lake, will also be conducted at the facility.

“We really haven’t had an area to do industrial training in Storm Lake,” college President Dan Kinney said Thursday evening. “This will allow us to expand and really serve the industries in the western end of our area.”

“I’m excited because I think we’re going to see some growth in Storm Lake,” he added.

During a Thursday meeting conducted by conference call, the college’s Board of Directors hired L & L Builders Co., of Sioux City, to construct the new center. The company will be paid $2,803,400.

The new center will be on a 12-acre site on Lake Avenue North on the north side of the city.

The building will include two large industrial training spaces. Kinney said one will be set up for welding classes, while the other will be a multipurpose area that could be set up for a variety of training programs. Two classrooms and a couple of offices will also be in the center.

Kinney said construction will begin this spring and be completed by the fall of 2020.

The board also hired Precision Roofing, of Lee’s Summit, Missouri, to replace the roofs on the Science and Liberal Arts buildings on the Fort Dodge campus. The company will be paid $449,520.

That work will be done this summer.

“We will have some summer classes in those buildings, but we won’t be using the top floors,” Kinney said.

The new industrial training center and the roofing jobs are being paid for with money from a $25.5 million general obligation bond issue approved by area voters in February 2018.