Another difference: Car dealership mogul and Utah Jazz owner Larry Miller is footing the nearly $21 million tab.

Miller and state leaders broke ground on the site of the future Public Safety Training Center on Monday. The center will house, feed and educate recruits who will become Utah's future police officers and prison guards. It will also serve as the community college's culinary arts department.

The center, expected to open next year, will end construction of the Miller campus at 9750 S. 300 West. Since 1999, Miller has spent tens of millions of dollars of his own money on six buildings for the community college that offer such courses as interior design, automotive training and corporate tactics.

"There is probably no one who has given more to the community college effort in the whole nation than Larry Miller," said SLCC interim President Judd Morgan.

Miller was also showered with praise by the commissioner of public safety, the head of Corrections and the attorney general. In return, Miller said he viewed his latest donation as "an opportunity to say thank you" to law enforcement.

"There are people out here who care about what they are doing," he said.

The center will take over most of the training now conducted at the Peace Officers Standards and Training (POST) building at the Department of Public Safety Headquarters in West Valley City. Recruits can stay at a three-story dormitory, eat in the culinary department's cafeteria and train in the three-story education building. The education building will include hands-on training areas next to classrooms. An adjacent indoor firing range, costing $2.5 million, will allow up to 20 cadets at a time to practice their marksmanship.

The building will allow corrections and police recruits to hold joint classes in basic courses before starting specialized training, which will save taxpayer dollars, according to Dan Fallows, who oversaw the planning of the new center for the Public Safety Department.

POST Director Rich Townsend said the building will also allow for more training classes to fill the growing vacancies in Utah law enforcement resulting from the retirement of many baby boomers and state employees who have left early because the state Legislature and governor repealed a popular but costly medical benefit.

Townsend said POST is already training a record amount of cadets this year in tight quarters and the new community college center will fill "a desperate need."

mcanham@sltrib.com