FLOWER MOUND — North Central Texas College plans to expand in Denton County with a new campus at Parker Square in Flower Mound.

The campus is scheduled to open for the spring semester with an estimated 1,000 students in January, and staff will begin operating in the space Oct. 1.

NCTC has been in Denton County for a decade in Corinth, and having a second location, especially in the southern portion of the county, will allow the college to serve more students, said Lee Ann Nutt, vice president for instruction.

“This was a way to grow enrollment in Denton County and be in a pocket of geography we aren’t reaching as effectively as we wanted to,” Nutt said.

In a special called meeting last week, NCTC’s Board of Regents signed a 10-year lease agreement with a group of private investors to develop and lease the 32,000-square-foot Parker Square building. The lease has an option to buy the building at the end of the contract.

Until the college’s accrediting body approves programs to be offered at the Parker Square campus, NCTC will offer only university transfer courses, such as English, math and government, Nutt said.

Once the campus receives accreditation, NCTC plans to offer a full range of courses there, including associate’s degrees in arts and science, Nutt said.

Denton County has been a growing market for the college, and the Corinth campus has been filled to capacity with about 6,000 students for the last few semesters. Officials placed expansion of the Corinth campus on hold earlier this year, after news that the city wouldn’t get a station on the A-train commuter rail line.

While school officials were concerned about the lack of visibility and accessibility at the Corinth campus, the Parker Square building should have plenty of both off Flower Mound’s busy Main Street, Nutt said.

“We see this as a great way to bring traffic to Parker Square,” she said.

The Gainesville-based community college will serve a market previously filled by community colleges in northern Dallas and Tarrant counties, she said.

The leased building at 1200 Parker Square had recently been foreclosed on, officials said. Numerous “for lease” signs hang on empty retail and office spaces throughout the eight-building development.

The college could help boost the struggling development and could revitalize Parker Square, Nutt said.

“Since it’s mid-block, the major retailers haven’t wanted to go there, but for us, it’s perfect,” she said.

Melissa Glasgow, Flower Mound’s economic development director, said Parker Square has been struggling with vacancies and a shortage of daytime consumers in the immediate area.

“The economy as a whole has been hard on all the restaurants and retailers throughout the metroplex, and Parker Square is really no different from that,” Glasgow said.

The Parker Square lease with NCTC would significantly improve the economic vitality of the area, she said.

“We would welcome them with open arms,” Glasgow said.

The two-year-old, finished shell of a building was owned by a credit union shortly before NCTC entered into the lease with private investors, said Alex Payne, who handles real estate for the college.

The specialized lease has a built-in agreement for the construction of 10 classrooms, two computer labs, a lecture hall and library in the building as soon as the college finishes closing on the property in three weeks, he said.

“We’re in a tight timeframe to get ready for January occupancy,” Payne said.

Registration for spring classes at Parker Square will begin in November. Officials are planning to offer 118 sections of courses and will likely hire about 40 adjunct staff members to support the campus.

For more information, visit www.nctc.edu.

CANDACE CARLISLE can be reached at 940-566-6889. Her e-mail address is ccarlisle@dentonrc.com.