Arizona newspaper reports on Franklin Pierce plans to develop campus in City of Goodyear...

Pierce University signs lease with Goodyear
By CHARLES KELLY

The Arizona Republic,
Phoenix, AZ, June 14, 2008

 

GOODYEAR, AZ - Franklin Pierce University has signed a 99-year lease with Goodyear to build and run a campus on 20 acres in the City Center development.

The lease marks a significant step in Goodyear's efforts to become a hub for higher education in the West Valley.

In March, the city signed a similar lease with University of the Incarnate Word, a San Antonio, Texas-based school, for 30 acres north of City Center.

Franklin Pierce University, a small, private New Hampshire-based institution grounded in the liberal arts, is scheduled to complete construction of Phase One buildings on the Goodyear site by summer 2012.

Completion of the campus will take 15 years.

"This represents another milestone in what we expect will be a long and productive partnership with Goodyear to create a vibrant City Center and meet the education and training needs of West Valley residents," said George J. Hagerty, university president.

The university has also signed an interim agreement with Abrazo Health Care to lease the West Valley Learning Center through the end of 2010.

It's expected that agreement will allow the university to begin offering its doctor of physical therapy program in December and an associate degree in nursing program in January.

This spring, the university began offering classes in space leased from Goodyear.

Franklin Pierce University consists of a traditional undergraduate college in Rindge, N.H., with a student population of 1,700, and the College of Graduate and Professional Studies, which offers degrees through the doctoral level at five satellite centers in New Hampshire and online.

Its timetable for getting fully operational in Goodyear is firmer than that for University of the Incarnate Word, which plans to raise money statewide before starting to build in the city no earlier than 2011.