NMU's Northern Enterprise Center moves forward

What's happening: New state funding will help expand the College of Business at Northern Michigan University, with the goal of kickstarting workforce, economic and community development in the region. Funding was approved as part of the supplemental appropriations bill signed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Monday, Dec. 18, providing $13.4 million of the total $19.1 million needed to create the Northern Enterprise Center. 

Improving the campus: The Northern Enterprise Center will be an addition to the campus’s C.B. Hedgcock Building. Once the school’s basketball and athletics facility, the building was renovated into NMU’s student services building in 2004. But now, as Northern Michigan continues to expand on majors directed toward business and increasing its role in the region as an economic driver, the university needs more facilities. The Northern Enterprise Center will provide a new home to the College of Business, centralizing more academic programs and creating corridors that will allow students to walk anywhere in the academic mall all indoors.

What they're saying: “The Northern Enterprise Center's planned location in the heart of campus — as an addition to the C.B. Hedgcock Building — will bring students close to support operations with better access to advising, tutoring, first-generation student services and resources,” said NMU President Brock Tessman. “It also provides greater access to faculty, whose offices are currently in Cohodas Hall, and creates opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration with other departments."

What's next: NMU is required to receive construction authorization from the Department of Technology, Management and Budget to review and approve programming and design. That process can take approximately a year, according to NMU officials, with another year after that for the construction.