By Mary O’KEEFE

An informational meeting was held on Wednesday morning at Glendale Community College (GCC) concerning the proposed plans for the Professional Development Center and former Citibank property in the 2300 block of Honolulu Avenue. 

Community members didn’t appear as concerned with the partnership between USC Keck and GCC, as it combines education and professional training for physical therapy and occupational therapy, but more so what happens as plans move forward. 

“I know there [are] different folks who are here for different reasons, so we’re hoping to answer everyone’s questions,” said Dr. Ryan Cornner, superintendent/president GCC. 

Cornner started the meeting by explaining where the idea to combine the academics of GCC with the professional medical field of USC Keck. 

The college owns two buildings in Montrose along Honolulu Avenue: the building where PDC was located and the Citibank location, which was purchased in 2017. Since then the Citibank building has been vacant. Maintaining the “small town atmosphere,” and keeping in line with the Montrose Shopping Park, directed GCC in its decision-making. 

“We’ve had a presence in the Montrose community for about 30 years with our PDC program, which has traditionally offered instruction for employees,” Cornner said. 

Employers would contract with PDC when they wanted to offer increased training for their employees. Employees would then go to the PDC offices.

“And it’s been that way for almost six years,” he said.

But times have changed and recently employers have said they want the PDC staff to come to their place of business to train employees.

“What we also found is more often instruction was happening completely online,” he said.

GCC knew it had do something with the PDC facility and it also wanted to find a use for the former Citibank location. GCC knew it wanted to do something that could help the community at the location as well as support its own students. 

A woman who was the former head of the board of occupational therapy for the state had approached Cornner.

“[She asked] ‘Did you know there’s not a public occupational therapy assistant program in all of LA County?’” Cornner said. 

He did some research and found that was not only true but in programs in other areas, outside of LA County, the costs for occupational assistant programs were anywhere from $50,000 to $200,000 for students. By offering the program through GCC to full time students in their first two years that cost to the students would be zero – community college in the state offers free tuition for the first two years of attendance by full time students. 

Cornner then reached out to several hospitals; USC Verdugo Hills Hospital responded, which resulted in a partnership between the hospital’s occupational therapy (OT) and physical therapy (PT) departments. 

When the student program begins, the school would start with a small group of students – about 15. USC would have OT and PT therapists who would also teach, and students would have a space to learn the therapies. In addition, USC would see patients who need OT and PT. 

Prior to this move to the Montrose campus and the partnership with GCC, USC OT and PT were at VHH near the emergency department (ED). The move was beneficial to the hospital because the ED needed more space. 

Felipe Osorno, chief post-acute care officer and chief of staff for Keck Medicine of USC, assured those in the audience that the classes offered by the hospital that were tied to the OT and PT departments would continue at VHH.

There was also assurances that those who worked at the PT and OT departments at USC-VHH would move to the new facility at the GCC Montrose campus. Out of 13 employees, it was reported that two were retiring and 11 had been given offers of transfer. As of Wednesday nine of the 11 had accepted. 

Those in the audience, for the most part, felt the idea of having PT and OT in Montrose was a positive thing for students and patients; however, there was concern on how this program might grow beyond the initial plans as presented. Worries included the possibility of a parking structure being built and more people than the small number of patients and students originally proposed would grow. 

Cornner was asked to make not just a promise but to create a land use determination-type document that would keep in place what was being promised by GCC and USC. Cornner said he would reach out to a legal team to see how or if that could be done; however, it would be difficult to make promises that this present GCC governing board would agree to but could be changed decades later. 

There were still concerns voiced by those in the audience of the future of the project and the outreach efforts and wanting “a seat at the table” when decisions were made. It was also requested that a similar event be held in the evening so people who work could attend. Those in the audience also wanted plenty of notice given of any upcoming meetings. 

Cornner said he would continue to reach out and make sure the community had a voice in the plans, including the design of the former Citibank location. 

On July 1, USC will be moving into the former PDC building, which is now under construction to accommodate OT and PT. It will be there temporarily while the former Citibank building is torn down and a new building constructed. The plan is to open the GCC Allied Health Care Facility in 2031.