Algoma University will double the size of its Brampton campus in 2019.

The Queen Street East site will increase to 12,000 square feet, president Asima Vezina told The Sault Star. Expansion cost is $900,000, to be paid solely by the post-secondary institution. Algoma has been based at 24 Queen St. E. for eight years.

“We’ve outgrown the space that we’re in,” Vezina said following an open portion of a board of governors meeting last Thursday.

The expanded campus will “have a very strong presence” off Garden Square in downtown Brampton. Signage and windows will be designed “to pull you in,” said Vezina.

“It’s a very, very, very busy space with lots of cafes and theatre district,” she said. “We just naturally want to pull you in and let you see what’s happening in the school of business.”

Algoma expects to have 300 full-time-equivalent students taking classes at Brampton in January.

Harry Schlange, chief administrative officer of Brampton, and Paul Aldunate, expeditor, office of the chief administrative officer, spoke when Algoma’s board of governors met.

Brampton projects its population will grow to 900,000 in 2040, making the city in the Greater Toronto Area the fifth largest municipality in Canada.

Sheridan College is already active in Brampton. Ryerson University planned to partner with Sheridan on a new campus in the city. The provincial government cancelled that and two other Toronto-area post-secondary campuses in late October.

Schlange told governors Ryerson, Sheridan and Algoma “are going to be a big part of our future in that downtown.” Brampton youth tell him they want “learning and education” opportunities.

Algoma’s business programming is “a differentiator” from what Sheridan offers now “and what Ryerson’s planning to do,” Schlange told The Sault Star.

“I think Algoma will be a critical part of the vision for a stronger, higher education presence in their community,” said president Asima Vezina. “I think they’re very excited to have us in their downtown and there’s going to be lots of partnership opportunity with the city moving forward.”

A “north-south link” between the two campuses was discussed when Schlange and Aldunate were in the Sault, said Vezina.

She wants to draw some business students at Algoma in Brampton to spend at least a year in the Sault “and have an adventure with us while they’re studying … and learn a little bit more about what it feels like to live in Northern Ontario.

“We think there is a group that is looking for that kind of an adventure,” said Vezina.

– with files from Canadian Press

btkelly@postmedia.com

On Twitter: @Saultreporter