Construction to start Wednesday at Indio COD

Officials will break ground tomorrow on the future College
of the Desert campus in downtown Indio.
The ceremony is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. at the college construction
site on Oasis Street between Requa Avenue and Towne Street. The three-story,
40,000-square-foot COD Indio Educational Center is slated to open in 2013.
COD President Joel Kinnamon and Indio Mayor Glenn Miller are expected at
the groundbreaking ceremony, COD spokeswoman Robin Cotton said.
The campus will accommodate about 3,000 students and include 10,000
square feet of retail space. Revenue generated by retail sales will be used for
campus operations. A multi-purpose space will be used as a conference center or
divided into four 44-student classrooms.
The second floor will have five classrooms, a lab and administrative
offices, and the third floor will contain five classrooms, lounges for staff
and students and two labs.
The campus is planned for 2 1/2 acres bounded by Oasis on the west,
Requa on the south, Civic Center on the north and Towne on the east, city
spokesman Chris Escobedo said.
Several streets are scheduled to be closed through the end of November
while crews install sewer lines, water and storm drainage systems, pave streets
and do other infrastructure work to support the campus.
The closures are:
— Towne Street between Bliss and Requa avenues;
— Bliss between Towne and Oasis streets;
— Civic Center Mall between Towne and Oasis; and
— Requa between Towne and Oasis.