College of Hair Design will build second Lincoln campus
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By JEAN ORTIZ/Lincoln Journal Star
Hoping to do away with waiting lists of prospective students, the College of Hair Design is planning to open a second Lincoln campus, school officials announced.
The college, which offers courses in cosmetology, barbering and esthetics, is set to begin construction on a 26,000-square-foot building at 9000 Andermatt Drive in southeast Lincoln, said Jeff Collins, who handles marketing for the college.
“We are maxed out of space here and we have such a waiting list that many times we have to turn students away,” Collins said, adding that some students have been on waiting lists for six months to a year.
The college, which opened in 1960, will continue to operate its campus at 11th and M streets — a site that’s been the college’s home since 1975. The 10,000-square-foot site spread across three floors been extensively upgraded, with more than $400,000 invested within the last 18 months as the college readied to launch its esthetics program, Collins said.
About 150 students from all over Nebraska are taking classes at the college now, he said.
Enrollment after the expansion likely will fall just short of doubling that, though the new location may draw more students from southeast Nebraska and maybe into Kansas.
Planning has been under way for a little more than a year, according to Collins.
The new location will feature 70 stations for hair services as well as 20 private rooms for skin care consultations. The site also will include a “color consultation bar” where students and their clients can flip through sample books to help in hair color selection.
The addition also will boast a functional, yet ultra-modern design in a single-story floor plan, Collins said.
“It is going to be gorgeous,” he said.
The college’s salon services are available to the public at discounted prices. Advanced advanced students perform the services under the supervision of licensed instructors.
The new location, which has a parking lot and is next door to Menard’s with a Wal-Mart Supercenter not far away, may help draw more foot traffic, which is good for students needing experience, said Greg Howard, a co-owner and vice-president of the college.
School officials sought out a site that wouldn’t compete with the downtown college and also would be near an anchor store to ensure a stronger flow of customers, he said.
The $3 million project is expected to be completed in the late summer of 2008.
Reach Jean Ortiz at 473-7107 or jortiz@journalstar.com
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