PHSC opens new science and innovation center in Dade City

Pasco-Hernando State College opened its Wilton Simpson Science & Innovation Center in Dade City on June 16, adding a 27,000-square-foot building meant to do more than house classrooms. The new center sits at PHSC’s East Campus, across from the original campus area and the fire training tower, and includes classrooms, workspace, offices and a two-story auditorium.

The placement matters because PHSC has spent decades building a technical corridor on Blanton Road that is tied directly to job training. The college traces its East Campus back to 1967, when the Florida Legislature founded Pasco-Hernando Community College and the school bought a 100-acre parcel in Dade City for $125,000. Today, the campus also includes a public service technology building, a welding lab, a fire training tower and a future fire station-academy, making the new center part of a wider workforce cluster rather than an isolated addition.

Florida Commissioner of Agriculture Wilton Simpson took part in the ribbon cutting, and PHSC board chair Nicole Newlon underscored the college’s emphasis on STEM education and its effort to keep pace with regional demand. WREC also praised the project as a major investment in education, workforce development and the community’s future.

The clearest test of whether the center will help Hernando County and the surrounding region comes in the programs already tied to East Campus. PHSC’s Fire Academy trains future fire service personnel with instructors and facilitators from local agencies, and the college recognized 34 Fire Academy graduates in August 2025 after a 16-week training program. That gives the new building an immediate role in public-safety training, with students able to move from classroom instruction to hands-on preparation without leaving the Dade City campus.

The center also gives PHSC a larger home for science, technology, engineering and math instruction at a time when local employers continue to look for workers who can fill technical and public-service jobs. The auditorium adds space for board meetings, presentations and campus events, and PHSC scheduled a board meeting there on June 16, signaling that the building is meant to function as a campus hub as well as an academic one.

For Hernando County, the question is not whether the ribbon cutting was symbolic. It is whether the center helps produce more welders, firefighters and STEM-trained graduates close to home, and whether those students see enough opportunity in Pasco and Hernando counties to stay after they finish.