New business school to cost $100 million

Business school Dean Yash Gupta announced yesterday $20 million in donations for the school's new facility by members of the school's advisory board. The announcement was made at the UW business school's breakfast, held yesterday morning.

The $20 million is the first portion of a $100 million project by the business school to replace its current home in Balmer Hall. The new facility is expected to be about 52,000 square feet, double that of the existing business building.

Gupta said that the construction of a new building has been at the forefront of his priorities as dean.

According to Assistant Dean Peter Lasher, yesterday's donations may not be the full contribution of funds from the advisory committee, which is made up of local business executives. Lasher said not all members of the committee expected to make donations have made them yet.

Among the 65 on the advisory board list are top executives and presidents from Boeing, Milgard, Alaska Airlines, Weyerhaeuser, Starbucks and others.

When built, the new business building will be the first UW building funded completely by private donations.

"Funding for new building construction is pretty tight," Lasher said. "We figure the best way to get a new building is to raise funding ourselves."

According to Lasher, the school has been looking at this means of funding since about April.

"We're excited to get this amount of money so quickly," said Lasher.

The names of those who donated the funds are being kept confidential for now as well as the amount they donated, Lasher said.

"We want to keep the details secret to give the opportunity for others to donate and not feel alienated," he said.

However, Lasher said it would probably be years before the project gets off the ground.

According to Gupta, the business school is growing and needs to find a way to accommodate a larger program.

Lasher said the new building is in the pre-design phase. Business school administrators are discussing a complex of buildings that would replace Balmer Hall and extend to the N-4 parking lot.

According to Lasher, the square footage of the complex would exceed that of the new law building, which opened this fall.

"We are not exactly sure what it is going to look like, but we have been able to get some ideas knowing the space we have to work with," said Lasher.

Lasher said the school wants to raise $40 million by the time the design of the building is finished and approximately $90 million before construction starts.