Ground broken on Orange Coast College’s new Mariner Training Center

  NEWPORT BEACH―Shovels have officially hit the dirt at what will be Orange Coast College School of Sailing and Seamanship’s new Mariner Training Center in Newport Beach. Set to open in the fall of 2021, the building will be home to OCC’s growing Professional Mariner Program, which offers an associate degree or certificate program for students who are pursuing careers in boating and maritime related fields. The two-story, 12,000-square-foot facility will include classrooms, a conference room and a student lounge, as well as a state-of-the-art laboratory space, a full mission bridge simulator, and a radar training room. There will also be ground-level parking below the building. The center will be located across Pacific Coast Highway from the college’s facility on Newport Harbor. A skyway bridge over PCH will connect the new center to the school’s harbor side facility. A ground breaking ceremony was held in September and construction is in full force. The $22 million project was funded by the local Measure M school bond, passed by voters in 2012. “After we started the program about seven years ago it quickly matched our capacity at this location,” said Brad Avery, the director of OCC School of Sailing and Seamanship. “We actually saw this coming...