Beacon College breathing life into downtown Leesburg

LEESBURG — Things are changing downtown, and despite some concerns and a wish list that includes more development, merchants say they are happy with the direction the commercial district is headed.

One of the biggest changes is the growing presence of Beacon College, a 350-student school for people with learning disabilities. Most merchants praise the school as “a good neighbor” for renovating old buildings and erecting new ones, but some worry privately that the school is buying up valuable commercial space. Others have been skeptical that the students are not the kind of consumers who will flock to their business. Still others worry that because Beacon is nonprofit it is not contributing to the tax base.

The college is contributing to the economy, school officials say. As far as continuing to grow, the school will be capped out in three years with 500 students, they say.

“I love Beacon College and I love what they are doing,” said Joyce Huey of Two Old Hags Wine Shoppe. “My son graduated from there.”

However, she worries about the school being tax-exempt. So is the Christian Care Center on the west end of Main Street. “As a business person, that concerns me.”

City leaders are not worried. Whatever the city has lost as a taxpayer is more than made up by the school’s capital improvements, said City Manager Al Minner.

The school, for example, did “an extreme makeover of the academic mall’s current ‘storefront’ look,” near Palmetto and Main, thanks to a $189,375 grant, the school said in a recent release.

The college also demolished the old Herlong citrus packing plant between Third and Palmetto streets this summer to make way for more student housing. The school checked to see if the crumbling structure could be salvaged before ordering the wrecking ball.

In May, car dealer Gordon G. Oldham III donated three acres to the college behind the Lake Heart and Cancer Medical Center.

The only work slated for Main Street will be on two vacant lots the school purchased for $399,000 at 115 E. Main St., adjacent to the school’s administration building.

The college will be building two buildings there, a conference center and an academic building, said Beacon Vice President Steve Muller. It is part of a $10 million campaign authorized by the college’s board earlier this year.