Northern College signs deal with Timmins to rent downtown office space

Northern College to open Downtown Timmins location Northern College will operate a storefront location in Downtown Timmins where call centres once worked. Lydia Chubak reports.

Northern College will soon operate a storefront location in downtown Timmins.

The school recently signed a lease with the city and has chosen to work out of the 'Michael J.J. Doody Centre of Excellence' building at the corner of Spruce Street South and Second Avenue.

"I think, all told, we said somewhere around 100 people per day would be expected to be using that facility, so it brings a good chunk of people down to that area," said Aaron Klooster, senior vice-president academic and student success at Northern College, who is overseeing the project.

Klooster said the new location will allow the school to expand some of its existing services, such as connecting employers with recruits and helping newcomers to Canada find jobs and services.

"And, of course, it frees up some capacity here at the Timmins campus of Northern College. And then, we can retrofit for use of other programming," he said.

"So it allows us to deal with some capacity challenges that we’re having, all good problems to have."

Downtown Timmins BIA officials said they are excited about this new development.

"That’s one of the best things that we could do with the downtown is having more people coming in and shopping, eating, hanging out, just being part of our community," said Cory Robin, the BIA president.

A new facade and door expansion at the building are also in the plans for the new tenant.

The college said it expects some services to be offered as early as the fall and some academic programming to begin in the new year.