By Jeremy Borden

Published: May 8, 2008

In preparation for Monticello’s new visitors center that is expected to open in November, officials are closing the old center that sits off Route 20 in Albemarle County and dismantling the exhibition.

The museum shop, exhibition and theater space will close June 8. Much of the exhibition will be relocated to the new Thomas Jefferson Visitor Center and Smith Education Center once it opens.

Wayne Mogielnicki, Monticello’s communications director, said dismantling and packing up the exhibit is a painstaking and careful process given the age of the items.

“It’s something we have to do to prepare for the new place,” he said.

Piedmont Virginia Community College is hoping to renovate and expand the existing 10,228-square-foot facility to roughly twice its current size.

However, PVCC must first gain the approval of both Charlottesville and Albemarle County, which jointly own the property.

PVCC President Frank Friedman said he has proposed to the city and county that they give the property to the Virginia community college system so PVCC can convert the building into a “workforce development center,” where people would be able to take short-term, non-credit business courses geared toward management, computer software, pharmacy technicians and more.

“We do an awful lot of that, but we’re short of space,” Friedman said.

He said there have been “preliminary discussions” with county and city officials, but he is unsure where they stand.

“They have to get together and decide what to do with it,” he said. “We’re very hopeful. We think it’s a very appropriate use for the building. We would be doing something that benefits people in both the city and county and businesses in the city and county.”

The building also includes the Charlottesville Albemarle Convention and Visitors Bureau’s tourist information office, which will remain open after the Monticello visitors center closes.

Under an agreement with the state, the property must be used for tourism purposes, or else its ownership reverts to Virginia’s community college system.

Daily Progress staff writer Scott Shenk contributed to this story.