The Kestrel JP-10 flying over it’s new home at Brunswick Landing where they will be manufactured

Southern Maine Community College’s Brunswick Landing campus is expanding with the addition of 10 acres and three buildings. The college now owns five buildings and 20 acres at the former Brunswick Naval Air Station. The buildings transferred include a residence hall, health center, and classroom, laboratory and office space.

The college paid the federal government $1 for the properties- valued at $78 million. A general obligation bond approved by Maine voters in June 2010 allocates $4.75 million for improvements to the buildings.

About 100 students are now taking classes at SMCC’s Midcoast campus, in subjects like nursing, pre-engineering, composites, business, and liberal studies. The composites program helps directly with jobs for Kestral Air at Brunswick Landing and the possiblity of offshore windmills being produced in the area. The wind mills components made from composites maybe manufactured at Brunswick Landing.

Heavy equipment maintenance and several other certificate and degree programs will be offered at the campus beginning in the fall of 2012.

The former Navy base will also soon host the Maine Advanced Technology and Engineering Center, a partnership between the University of Maine and SMCC that will offer degrees in engineering.

When fully operational, SMCC’s Midcoast campus is expected to serve an additional 2,000 community college students annually.