Building the future

BRIDGETON – A 180-year-old building that has served numerous businesses throughout the city’s lengthy history has been re-purposed as a technology-focused school of the future.

Called Makerspace, the historic three-story building at 46-50 East Commerce Street is a collaboration between Cumberland County College, which operates the facility, the Cumberland Empowerment Zone, which owns the property, and the city, which helped pay for renovations.

Designed as a satellite campus to expand the college’s growing technology and engineering curriculum, the facility offers students a hands-on, technology-based education using state-of-the-art digital equipment, and it’s already open and running.

“I would describe this building as laid back and quaint — you’re combining an old building with new technology,” Kevin Rabago, director of the Office of Development and Planning for…