Federal, state and local leaders gathered Friday to mark the official ribbon cutting of a new U.S. Coast Guard training center on the former Birmingham-Southern College campus, a move officials say will bring thousands of trainees and hundreds of instructors to the Birmingham area and generate hundreds of millions of dollars in economic impact.
After 168 years as Birmingham-Southern College, the historic campus is taking on a new mission as the Coast Guard begins setting up a training hub in Birmingham.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said Birmingham has welcomed the Coast Guard with open arms.
“And the way Birmingham has just, it’s been amazing how they had just opened their arms and said, Hey listen, once you’re here we’re going to do what it takes,” Mullin said. “When the Coast Guard is welcome someplace and they come in, we drop anchor. That means we’re going to be here and we’re not leaving.”
Coast Guard leaders said the campus was a natural fit because of its existing buildings and large footprint. Adm. Kevin Lunday said the property includes world-class facilities that can be put to use quickly.
“In many of the buildings, we can go right in and begin training very quickly,” Lunday said.
Sen. Tommy Tuberville said reusing the campus will save money and allow the Coast Guard to develop the site into a top-tier training center.
“There won’t be anything better than this, so we’re looking forward to having eight or 900 cadets come through here,” Tuberville said.
Sen. Katie Britt said building a new facility from scratch would have cost about $1 billion, making the Birmingham-Southern campus a cost-effective alternative.
“So that’ll allow us, if we had actually had to invest in building a new facility, not only as you heard from Senator Tuberville what that would have taken quite some time, it would have cost about a billion dollars. So we’re gonna take the existing facility,” Britt said.
While the campus will serve a new purpose, Coast Guard leaders said Birmingham-Southern’s history will remain visible. Lunday said the college logo is embedded throughout the campus and will be preserved.
“So the Birmingham Southern College logo is embedded throughout the campus here. And everywhere you see it, we’re gonna preserve that,” Lunday said. “It’ll not only be a reminder for the alumni who visit that the heritage is preserved, but to every Coast Guard enlisted member that comes here to be trained.”
Officials said construction and upgrades will continue over the coming months as the Coast Guard prepares to welcome its first classes and transform the former college campus into one of the nation’s premier military training centers.
