New SUNY Brockport MetroCenter opening

SUNY Chancellor Robert L. King will join SUNY College at Brockport President Paul Yu to officially open the SUNY Brockport MetroCenter, Tuesday, September 17, at 11:30 a.m., at 55 St. Paul Street. Following the ribbon cutting ceremony, the building will be open for tours. In addition, a business networking fair will be held on site, 1-3 p.m.

"More than 22,000 SUNY Brockport alumni live and work in the greater Rochester area," said Chancellor King. "With the opening of the new MetroCenter, SUNY Brockport and its students, faculty and staff will stimulate the economy and further access to a high-quality SUNY experience. Bringing our campuses closer to the community is an important goal for all SUNY campuses and I am very pleased Paul Yu and his staff have successfully integrated the quality of a SUNY education directly into the downtown community."

The MetroCenter, formerly known as the Chamber of Commerce Building, was purchased last March by SUNY from the Greater Rochester Metro Chamber of Commerce and has since undergone a $1.2 million renovation to convert more than 45,000 square feet of the building's 90,000 square feet of floor space into classrooms, offices, computer labs, conference rooms, and student and faculty lounge areas.

The SUNY Brockport MetroCenter is home base for the Greater Rochester Collaborative Master of Social Work program, a degree program offered jointly by SUNY Brockport and Nazareth College of Rochester, with the majority of classes held at the MetroCenter. Other upper-division undergraduate and graduate-level courses will be offered at the MetroCenter in a variety of academic areas, including public administration, health care administration and health science. In addition, an array of non-credit, professional and corporate education courses are planned for day, evenings, and weekends.

The MetroCenter also is home to the SUNY Brockport Small Business Development Center (SBDC). Since 1987 it has provided management assistance to current and prospective small business owners in Monroe, Ontario, Livingston, Wayne, Genesee, and Orleans counties. The staff of certified advisors provides instruction in a variety of business-related skills that includes preparing a business plan, tax planning, the SEAP (Self-Employment Assistance Program) entrepreneurial training course, e-commerce, marketing and public relations.