WATERLOO — Conestoga College's Waterloo campus, housed in a half-century old vocational school for the past decade, is getting a $43.5-million makeover.

"It'll look like a post-secondary institution of 2018," Conestoga president John Tibbits said after a formal announcement was made in Waterloo on Monday.

The modernization of Conestoga's Waterloo campus, due to be finished in less than two years, is an important polish-up for the college's University Avenue image in the two-university town of Waterloo.

Conestoga took over the former University Heights Secondary School building in 2006, putting culinary and skilled trades programs into the aging structure.

"It's a wonderful facility, but I think we need to ratchet it up," Tibbits said.

So the school built in 1968 will be enveloped by the new Conestoga addition.

College space on the site will be doubled by a 150,000-square-foot expansion to "wrap around" what was once the last vocational school in Waterloo Region.

Yes, Tibbits said, the old high school will still be there.

"You will not recognize that it's there," he said.

Conestoga aims to move all of its information technology programming to the expanded Waterloo campus, Tibbits said.

Two satellite facilities rented by the college will be closed as a new Access Hub will enable students, newcomers to Canada, job seekers and employers to access information, programs and services in a single location.

The larger Waterloo campus will also feature improved culinary and hospitality facilities.

"Culinary labs will be right out facing on the street," Tibbits said. "You'll be able to see into the kitchen. It'll be impressive."

The price tag facing the college for the project will also be impressive.

The federal government is kicking in $14-million for the project. The province is pitching in $1.8-million. Conestoga will have to contribute the remaining $27.7-million.

"There's a lot on our shoulders on this one," Tibbits said.

"It's going to be a stretch for us, there's no question. We're going to have to put some of our own money in and we're going to have to, hopefully, go out and talk to people in the community to see if they can help out."

Tibbits said the college felt it needed to expand the Waterloo campus, which will stay open during construction. Waterloo is a booming foodie centre and the high-tech area is huge, he added.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Right now, about 700 post-secondary and 2,500 apprenticeship students attend the campus, he said. Another 2,500 to 3,000 students are expected to eventually arrive once expansion is complete. That'll push the number of full-time students at Conestoga — which has campuses in Guelph, Cambridge, Kitchener and Stratford — to about 15,000.

And the Waterloo campus could still be expanded further.

"There's still room there to grow if we have to grow," Tibbits said.