The State Board of Higher Education’s Budget and Finance Committee on Tuesday approved several UND projects.
They include the razing of some current structures used by the Energy and Environmental Research Center and the construction of a new building for advanced materials processing.
The EERC’s CEO, Charles Gorecki, said the new building is vital to the Center’s continued growth.
Gorecki told the committee that the proposal “would replace six old buildings with one state-of-the-art new facility with modular capability to bring in whatever type of research projects we might have in the future with appropriate lab and demonstration space.”
The project includes electrical upgrades to EERC facilities. To finance it, The UND Alumni Association would issue up to $25 million in lease revenue bonds. The project would also need approval of the next State Legislative Assembly.
The committee also okayed the financial terms and lease for the Memorial Village development on the site of the old Memorial Stadium.
UND will lease the first floor of the five-story building from the Alumni Association for athletic department offices. The top four stories will be owned by Memorial Village LLC and feature 99 residential units with underground parking. The estimated cost of the build is $40 million dollars.
In other action, the panel endorsed a request for interior remodeling of currently-vacant Carnegie Hall at an estimated cost of $3.8 million in local funds.
Mike Pieper is UND’s associate vice-president for facilities said, “this would remodel Carnegie into administrative space to free up space to put academic spaces in Twamley Hall, which would be connected via skyway to Merrifield Hall, via skyway to Nistler Hall, via skyway to the (Chester Fritz) library.”
The committee also authorized a $1.1 million plan to remodel Swanson Hall for the creation of a new home for the school’s E-sports program.
And the committee approved a $2.5 million proposal to remodel a hangar used by UND at the Grand Forks Airport — part of a larger project for a new flight operations building for the College of Aerospace. Pieper says the College has the funds on hand.
Also, the committee endorsed a staff recommendation for the North Dakota University System Board to request nearly $727 million in general fund spending from the 2023 legislature. UND’s portion for the 2023-25 biennium would be more than $150 million, with the med school requesting over $59 million. General fund dollars account for about 26 percent of the system’s current operational budget.
All proposals go before the full Higher Ed Board at its June 30th meeting.
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