CLAY — Once a $2 million renovation project is complete at the new location, Bryant & Stratton College plans to relocate its Clay campus from 8687 Carling Road, just off Route 31, to 7805 Oswego Road (Route 57). 

The school’s lease is set to expire at the end of the year, says Sue Cumoletti, market director of Syracuse colleges. She spoke with CNYBJ on Aug. 29.

Bryant & Stratton will renovate a 12,600-square-foot space on Oswego Road, the school said. Crews will also build a 3,000-square-foot addition at that location.

CBD Construction of Syracuse will handle the construction work, and Silvestri Architects, PC of Buffalo is the architect on the project. 

Bryant & Stratton has provided instruction at its current Clay campus — located behind Wegmans and retailer Runnings — for more than 23 years.

It signed a second lease for that space 12 years ago. “We’ve been very happy here,” Cumoletti notes.

The college’s new campus is set to begin operations in January 2020. During construction, classes will continue at the Carling Road location.

New Clay campus

The Clay campus of Bryant & Stratton serves students in both northern Onondaga and Oswego counties, so Cumoletti wanted a new location that was nearby.

And that’s not all. “What I really liked about the location at 7805 [Oswego Road] is that we have visibility,” she adds.

The location also has “convenient” access to the location through public transportation. We will actually have the bus stop right directly in front of our campus in the future,” says Cumoletti.

The site was most recently occupied by Liverpool Pool & Spa, according to Cumoletti. A CVS store also previously operated in the space, she adds. 

Bryant & Stratton currently operates in a more than 37,000-square-foot space at 8687 Carling Road. It will move to a building with about 15,500 square feet following the renovation project at the Route 57 location. 

The new Clay space is smaller, and Cumoletti says a reduced footprint was one of her objectives in finding a new space. 

Many of the students at the Carling Road campus take courses online and only have classroom instruction for certain courses. 

“In other words, based on the delivery and the choices of our students, we’re right sizing our footprint,” she says.

Nearly 300 students attended the Bryant & Stratton campus in Clay last fall, says Cumoletti. 

In addition to physical-structure improvements, Bryant & Stratton’s new location will begin offering a “blended learning model.” That will allow students to attend full time with only a few days a week on campus. Research “supports that blended learning results in stronger student learning and institutional outcomes,” Bryant & Stratton contends.

The renovation project will include adding a 3,000-square-foot second level to the building. The addition won’t completely cover the structure’s first level, but it will provide additional space for classrooms, a faculty room, and a program-director room, Cumoletti notes.

The new location will include classroom technology like desktop labs, nesting tables, flip top chairs, and a student lounge with an information-technology help desk, the school said. Additional amenities will include classroom labs for medical assisting, graphic design, and networking-technology students, as well as an anticipated bachelor of science in nursing program, pending approval by the New York State Office of Professions, it added.