AM Hub is a $31 million collaboration among Miami University, Butler Tech, OhioMeansJobs Butler County, the city of Hamilton and Butler County.
“This is only the beginning of a major impact, not just on workforce development and education, but this is a game changer for how education and industry, workforce all works together,” Greater Hamilton Chamber of Commerce President & CEO Dan Bates told Journal-News following a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the project Monday.
Bates said there’s “really nothing exactly like this” in the United States.
“When you look at what Butler Tech is doing and Miami University between polytechnic and AM HUB, this is just a small beginning to really a transformation that I think is going to be talked about throughout the entire county,” he said.
The biggest part of AM Hub is not just the opportunity it will create or the larger educational entities coming together, “it’s really about people working collaboratively,” Bates said.
“I think that this is going to be talked about across the nation, and I think that people are going to be coming to Southwest Ohio to say ‘How did they make this happen?’” Bates said.
Hamilton Mayor Pat Moeller said Hamilton has always been a manufacturing city, and that legacy will continue with AM Hub.
“If there’s a Mount Rushmore of projects in the City of Hamilton over the years, this AMHUB would be on that Mount Rushmore,” he said. “I mean, Spooky nook, yes, of course, but this is so pioneering. I don’t know any other state that has something like this.”
Moeller said it took a lot to get the project done and it was completed in a relatively short period of time.
He said having OhioMeansJobs relocate to the site in December “says a lot.”
“This building means jobs,” he said. “Ohio Means Jobs, it’s in Hamilton, Ohio, it’s in a part of our city, which is just going to help revitalize that even quicker.”
Moeller said AM Hub is “a great thing for for Hamilton, and ... because it’s such a pioneering concept, the entire United States.”
Having AM Hub open at the site, the former home of Champion Papers’ international headquarters, further advances area revitalization, Moeller said.
“It was sitting empty for a while .. but to see it be repurposed is absolutely incredible,” he said.
The facility was acquired by Miami University with significant funding support from the Butler County Board of Commissioners and the city of Hamilton ($2..
Butler County Commissioner Don Dixon said AM Hub is the largest investment ever made by Butler County commissioners in a project.
“That’s how deeply I’m committed to it, and the rest of the commissioners, also,” he said. “We committed $20 million, and we think it’s going to pay dividends for years and years to come, long after we’re gone.”
Dixon said the project utilizes a building that was underutilized, and represents “a win-win for our taxpayers and our businesses to create the workforce they need and provide the education that prepares people to do the manufacturing tasks required.”
He said numerous companies want to come to Butler County because of its resources, including its water and electric, but they need their future employees to be specifically trained to do certain tasks.
“These are very complicated jobs, with a lot of engineering and other aspects involved,” Dixon said. “Now we can provide that training for those companies, and we have enough companies that have worked with us in the past and know this project is coming online that they’re actually putting equipment and machinery into this building to train people specifically on what they need.
“Whatever businesses need for workforce, we provide it here: training, education, hands-on learning, so they get exactly what they need on Day One of the job..”
Travis Hunt, principal of AM Hub, said the program is equipping students with real-world skills while developing the advanced manufacturing workforce that local employers need to grow and stay competitive.
“That’s really what we’re creating here, a pipeline for students and adult learners, giving them the opportunity to improve their skills in advanced manufacturing,” Hunt said. “We couldn’t do it without our business partners and the hands-on learning they provide.”
Moira Casey, dean of College of Liberal Arts and Applied Science and Miami University Regionals, said advanced manufacturing is one of the growing, in-demand areas in Ohio and “we’re not producing enough graduates to fill those jobs.
“So here in this center, what we have is kind of a one stop shop for advanced manufacturing and for jobs for people here in Ohio,” Casey said. “With Butler Tech and their engineering program, Miami University and our engineering technology program and OhioMeansJobs, we have everybody working together to collaborate to make sure that we are meeting those workforce demands.”
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