A branch campus of Ohio Technical College, the PowerSport Institute is growing rapidly and is seen as a bright spot for troubled North Randall.Amid the dusty retail spaces and empty parking lots in North Randall, one thriving business has kicked into overdrive.The , a branch campus of , moved last summer into the former JCPenney space off Miles Road, in the ailing Randall Park Mall.learn to repair a motorbike at the PowerSport Institute in North Randall.
Student training kicked off in North Randall a few months ago, and campus director Bernie Thompson hopes to see all PowerSport Institute classes move from Cleveland to the branch campus in January.Around the same time, the institute could add an 18-month associate degree track, expanding on its traditional 48-week program.A wide carpet, patterned like a road, leads students and visitors between the bays and past blocked-off escalators that once carried shoppers.The second floor is used for dealer and manufacturer training for Kawasaki, Yamaha, Polaris and Victory.Hundreds of dealership and manufacturing employees will travel through North Randall during the next year to get their first look at — and their hands on — new vehicles.
Thompson is talking to Bombardier, Honda and Suzuki about offering seminars at the campus, and he hopes someday to lure Harley-Davidson to the building.The institute, which could hold a grand opening event next summer, hopes to offer motorcycle safety classes and build a dirt bike and snowmobile track in the parking lot next summer.Ohio Technical College already is using the parking lot for truck-driving schools.Once the North Randall campus meets that mark, the college will explore opening other PowerSport Institute branches in far-flung locations such as Denver and Las Vegas.This growth, Brenner said, will take place whether Randall Park Mall stagnates or gets saved.In June, a Cincinnati developer plans to buy bike the mall, then fell silent as rumors flew that the deal was dead.Sinai Ministries in Cleveland are involved in plans to remake the sprawling property, and Mayor Smith insists the mall is still under contract to a buyer.
Smith and other North Randall advocates have suggested that Ohio Technical College should move its entire campus — more than 600,000 square feet housed in a motley collection of old buildings.
