Image Source: Bowling Green State University
Key Facts
Location: Sandusky, Ohio
Partners: Bowling Green State University, Cedar Fair, and the City of Sandusky
Summary: In Sandusky, various sectors have aligned their missions and partnered to develop the nation’s first college centered on resort and attraction management—a $14 million investment that has also sparked improvements to other aspects of the City’s revitalization.
About
Bowling Green State University (BGSU); Cedar Fair, owner and operator of Cedar Point; and the City of Sandusky have collaborated to create the nation’s first post-secondary institution offering resort and attraction management. The school will be in the core of Sandusky’s downtown, where significant revitalization efforts are already underway. Overall, the $14 million investment will construct a five-story, 78,000 square foot facility to house the school’s learning center, an upwards of 80 apartments, and street-level retail. The housing will be for community members and resort management students.
The multi-sector partnership has not only helped strengthen the community’s tourism industry but has sparked other innovative improvements; a new fixed-service bus route now connects downtown to BGSU’s Firelands campus, located outside of city limits. The service includes stops along the way that provide transportation for a significant portion of the City’s workforce, while also serving the University’s students. This alignment of community assets (i.e., tourism, major employers, higher education, and transit) is still in the experimental stages. Yet, it demonstrates how various sectors can partner to reach shared goals for more significant community revitalization.
Partners’ collaboration has been crucial to completing the project. Moving forward, BGSU and Cedar Fair will work together to provide education and training to enhance Cedar Point’s talent pipeline. Cedar Fair has been the significant financer of the development, contributing $12.2 million; state and local grants have covered the remaining costs. Classes will begin in the fall of 2020, with enrollment numbers of around 200 students per year.
Sandusky and its partners have made significant strides in downtown recovery by re-purposing vacant buildings and moving City Hall to a mixed-use space in the summer of 2019. Today, efforts are focused on promoting sustainable tourism, workforce development, and more considerable resources for regional strategies to diversify the local economy.