Portland Community College plans to build a 20,000-square-foot training center in Scappoose as part of a new venture: the Oregon Manufacturing Innovation Center.

Last week, the Oregon Legislature released $7.5 million for the project, also known as OMIC. The center is backed by Oregon State University, Portland State University and Portland Community College, along with Boeing and groups such as Business Oregon, the city of Scappoose and the Oregon Employment Department.

Plans for the OMIC call for both a research and development center as well as a training center. The research and development center will be housed in an existing building that the Oregon Institute of Technology has committed to purchase. It will have about 25,000 square feet for research and development and 10,000 square feet for classroom, business and office use, according to a news release.

PCC also wants to build a training center holding approximately 20,000 square feet, said Nathan Buehler, spokesman for Business Oregon, an economic development group. The community college is currently negotiating with the property owner to build a facility, he said.

A PCC spokesman was out of the office and could not be reached for comment.

In addition to OSU and PSU, Boeing will serve as an anchor tenant, the groups said in a news release.

OMIC is modeled after the Advanced Manufacturing and Research Center in Sheffield, England. AMRC Sheffield is a 400-acre campus that employs 2,000 engineers and apprentices, and provides 800 member companies with access to training.

OMIC is slated to formally launch by 2017, although advanced manufacturing research activities by Oregon Tech, OSU and PSU are poised to begin immediately. Also, PCC will begin OMIC apprenticeship programs at its Rock Creek and Sylvania campuses until the new training center is built.

In April, PCC’s board of trustees passed a resolution allowing the college’s president to move forward with the purchase of property for the training center.

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