College president Stephen C. Scott said this week that the prospect of classes to be held on the new site, located off Louisburg Road just north of Interstate 540, is already sparking high levels of interest from potential students though registration for the fall semester has not yet begun.

"With the number of calls were getting, I'm scared we'll be turning some people away," Scott told county commissioners Monday.

The first two classroom buildings now under construction, and another to be built soon, are the result of a $40 million bond issue voters approved in 2004, with the bulk of the money going to establish the new 125-acre Northern Wake campus.

Slated to open in August, classes in such core academic subjects as English, math and history will be offered in the new buildings, as well as classes in entrepreneurship and financial services.

If the commissioners go ahead with another $106 million in proposed community college bonds that could appear on a ballot in October, North Raleigh would benefit once again. The Northern Wake Campus would get $22.3 million in the new bonds.

The money would go for a fourth classroom building, as well as more parking lots and new roads.

Planned for completion in 2009, the new building would house state-of-the art computer labs with classes in such emerging technologies as video game design and computer modeling.

More than 30 Triangle companies are specializing in this growing industry.

The Northern Wake Campus will also offer classes in informatics -- an emerging field that uses digital information technology to solve specific problems in areas as diverse as economics, biology and the fine arts.

By 2015, Wake Tech is planning to add enough classroom space on the Northern Wake Campus for the equivalent of 7,550 full-time students -- a student body larger than some four-year colleges.

Scott, Wake Tech's president, said Monday he expects North Raleigh residents to flock to the new campus.

"They will not want to drive south," he said.