This building has had a lot of cool companies come through. We’ve had everything from chickens, to a furniture manufacturing plant, to roller coaster design in this building. After Chance Coasters moved out in 2007, the building was left vacant for a few months while MBA looked for someone to occupy the space. Eventually MBA opened the space up to Education Consortium International, or more commonly known as ECI.

This group was one of the major players in getting foreign exchange students to MBA and getting them through their schooling. ECI used this building as their headquarters. They taught students, helped process and get them acquainted with the United States. ECI used the front parts of this building, but did not make use of the back storage rooms. So in 2010, MBA leased the back rooms and part of another building to Enchanted Sand castles. This very small company used sand from our beach and molded sand castles to be sold in a local store.

The back room was where the sand was glued together using a special clear resin. You can still see bits of sand that are still stuck to one of the back walls. ECI downsized their headquarters in 2012 to a small office in the back of the MBA music department. This left the front part of our building open again, while Enchanted Sand Castles moved out in 2016. Both these companies left their mark on this building.