Nicolet College won't be accepting a gift of the former Printpak building in Rhinelander.
The Board of Trustees Monday night voted not to pursue the gift offer from the large manufacturer to have Nicolet College take over Printpak's former building on Kemp Street.
Printpak recently moved to a 203,000 square foot state-of-the-art facility on Rhinelander's east side.
Nicolet Board Chair Ron Zimmerman says they thanked Printpak for the offer to locate a college facility in the former building but Zimmerman says the numbers didn't add up....
".....very difficult decision to make based on the offer they were making to us. We felt accepting the current offer would be beyond our financial resources. We just couldn't absorb the cost it would take...."
Zimmerman says the money needed would have forced them to go to referendum. Zimmerman said the costs would have been in the millions of dollars, including buying the new classroom equipment. He says an analysis found the unlikilihood that the school would get enough new students to pay off the cost
Zimmerman thanked Printpak for the generous gift offer but the college couldn't swing the deal...
"....some of the costs were just the day operation to keep the lights on and stuff like that were going to be substantial. Compared to what we would generate, it wouldn't make up for that difference. We just felt we couldn't do it at this time...."
Founded in 1956 and headquartered in Atlanta, Ga, Printpack is a privately-held manufacturer of flexible and specialty rigid packaging. The company operates 25 manufacturing facilities in the United States, Mexico, Poland and China, employing more than 4,000 persons.
