Guides Carolyn Chinn Lewis, right, and Cathy Hunt are silhouetted as they lead a tour through the Peaslee Technical Training Center on Wednesday, June 17, 2015.

The Dwayne Peaslee Technical Training Center will soon open its doors and introduce a new educational opportunity to Lawrence.

In August the center will begin its work training people who are new to Lawrence’s workforce, as well as those looking for career changes.

“We’ll do custom training for industry,” said Marvin Hunt, the executive director at the center, 2920 Haskell Ave. “Our whole goal is economic development, business retention and the expansion of existing businesses.”

The center takes its name from Dwayne Peaslee, a longtime Lawrence businessman and business manager for the Plumbers & Pipefitters Lawrence Local Union.

Peaslee, who died in 2013, was a man with an extraordinary work ethic, said Carolyn Chinn Lewis, an administrative assistant at the center. A plaque in Peaslee’s honor will be displayed just inside the center’s entrance.

The Peaslee Center will offer classes from Neosho County Community College, Johnson County Community College and Flint Hills Technical College, Chinn Lewis said.

“Really you’re enrolling in their courses with their faculty,” she said. “They’re the entity, and we’re the facility that brings it to Lawrence.”

Classes are set to begin Aug. 10, Hunt said. They are open for enrollment up until that starting date. In addition, the center is hosting an open enrollment day on July 15 from 4 to 6 p.m. at Centennial School, 2145 Louisiana St.

Tours of the still-under-construction facility are also available every Wednesday through July 29 at 4:30 p.m. They can be scheduled by calling 865-4411 or by emailing mhunt@lawrencechamber.com to reserve a spot.

Going forward, the Peaslee Center will be open to hosting classes from any school, so long as the proposed curriculum does not compete with that of Kansas University, Hunt said.

In addition to regular classes, the Peaslee Center will also work with businesses to create new training opportunities for existing employees. This way the facility is not only helping to train a new workforce, but working to improve the current workforce, Hunt said.

“It’s consortium,” he said. “Consortium power between industrial partners is more cost effective. If somebody wants us to teach employees about hydraulics and we can get more businesses involved and each of them can send one or two students, then you get 10 students and you’ve got a class.”

The Peaslee Center has been spearheaded by the Economic Development Corporation of Lawrence and Douglas County. It is located in the 77,000-square-foot former Honeywell Industries building.

When the center first opens, it will offer classes in construction technology and advanced manufacturing, Hunt said. But as it grows, HVAC (heating, ventilating and air conditioning) training facilities and an auto shop may be added.

“Truthfully we’re open to adding whatever the community needs,” Hunt said. “But we’ve got to raise the money first.”

The Peaslee Center will share its building with the Lawrence Workforce Center, and the Lawrence school district’s College and Career Center is being built nearby, Hunt said. All three organizations will work together to build and strengthen Lawrence’s workforce.

“They’ll concentrate more on high school students, and we’ll concentrate more on adults,” Hunt said. “And the students will go back and forth according to their interests.”

So far, around 50 adults and nearly 200 high school students have enrolled in Peaslee Center classes, Hunt said. The facility expects those numbers to grow in the coming weeks.

More information and enrollment opportunities can be found online at peasleetech.org or by calling 865-4426.