Railroad Square not in SRJC's plans

<p>Concerned that a proposed Railroad Square food and wine center isn't going to be built anytime soon, Santa Rosa Junior College has pulled its support and is looking elsewhere to build a new culinary arts school.</p><p>"We are disappointed, but we are not at all certain when that area will be ready to develop," Curt Groninga, SRJC vice president of administrative services, said Thursday.</p><p>Groninga said the lease on SRJC's culinary arts facility in downtown Santa Rosa expires in 18 months, and "we have to decide where in the district to put the new culinary center."</p><p>Michael Dieden, managing member of Railroad Square LLC, which has a contract to develop a $100 million food and wine center, said he, too, was disappointed, adding however that the loss of the junior college would not derail the plans.</p><p>"We have always considered the culinary arts school to be an important ingredient in our commercial mix at Railroad Square," Dieden said. "We are doing the public market, a couple of nice restaurants. The whole theme is the celebration of Sonoma County food and wine, so they fit in nicely."</p><p>Dieden said he is trying to set up a meeting with Groninga and Robert Agrella, the SRJC president, to ask them to reconsider.</p><p>If they don't, Dieden said the developers will look for another culinary school to be part of the project.</p><p>The college announced its intention to withdraw in a Dec. 22 letter to the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit agency, which owns the 5½ acres in Railroad Square where the food and wine center is to be developed.</p><p>Bob Jehn, a Cloverdale city councilman and member of the transit agency board, said he didn't think the junior college's withdrawal would hinder plans for the development.</p><p>"This project is too big, it is bigger than any one component, so it might not even slow it down," he said. "I would be surprised if it would slow down the progress."</p><p>Dieden said the development is planned to be along the lines of the Ferry Building in San Francisco, with 20 produce vendors in a 30,000-square-foot market, a restaurant, bicycle shop, child care center and 250 condominium units.</p><p>The proposal calls for construction to begin in early 2008 and to be open in 2010.</p><p>SRJC, in anticipation of the food and wine center's being built, moved its culinary arts program five years ago from its Santa Rosa campus to a 5,000-square-foot facility in the Brickyard building on Seventh Street downtown.</p><p>While a lease extension will be considered, Groninga said the college wants to have a new, 15,000-square-foot culinary arts school to teach cooking, baking and restaurant management in about two years.</p><p>That could require looking for space on or near the Santa Rosa or Petaluma campuses to build the new culinary arts school, at a cost of about $4 million.</p><p>"What is driving us is not knowing how soon we can get into Railroad Square," Groninga said. "And because of waiting, there is a real worry about escalating construction costs."</p><p>Santa Rosa Mayor Bob Blanchard, who is an adjunct faculty member at SRJC, said he, too, hopes college administrators might change their minds.</p><p>"Having the junior college culinary arts program in the food and wine center is a major enhancement," Blanchard said. "Imagine walking into the market, and there you have this entire floor that is chefs in the making. You can visualize how productive that is. I would hate to see that go to another site."</p>