Purdue University’s Board of Trustees recently approved a new $60 million Agricultural and Life Sciences Facility. The 123,000 gross-square-foot facility complex will consolidate Department of Animal Sciences students, faculty and staff into a unified complex to better coordinate teaching, research and engagement activities, according to the university. It will also provide needed upgrades to teaching, research and meat lab facilities. “This new location will provide the facilities needed to maintain our continued recognition as a premier program and attract top students and faculty, as well as to support the animal industries in our state and around the world at the highest levels,” said Jay Akridge, Ph.D., Purdue’s Glenn W. Sample Dean of Agriculture. “In addition, the location near the Life and Health Sciences Park and adjacent to Discovery Park will allow us to enhance collaboration among our college and the colleges of Engineering, Health and Human Sciences and Veterinary Medicine.” Construction is slated to being in February 2016. Occupancy in the facility is aimed for July 2017. Financing will come from $35 million in student fee bond proceeds approved by the General Assembly, $15 million in gift funds and $10 million from the capital reserve for buildings. Purdue must provide $5 million in matching funds in order to activate the General Assembly’s authorization of an additional $5 million in bonding authority for the project, the university noted. Trustees also approved requesting assistance from the Purdue Research Foundation to assume responsibility for the design and construction of the $8.8 million Centaur Regional Equine Diagnostic and Surgical Center, which will be located in Shelbyville near Indiana Grand. The facility will provide health services to horses and serve as a working laboratory to support the College of Veterinary Medicine’s student learning and research. “This is an exciting partnership that will provide expanded training opportunities for our future equine specialists,” said Willie Reed, DVM, Ph.D., Dipl. ACVP, Dipl. ACPV, dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine and professor of veterinary anatomic pathology. “We will have a cutting-edge facility to facilitate groundbreaking research and administer emergency medical services in a location near Indiana Grand.” The center will be built on land purchased by Purdue Research Foundation with $2.3 million in support from Shelby County and city of Shelbyville. Centaur Gaming, which owns and operates Indiana Grand Racing & Casino, has pledged $3.1 million to name the facility, according to Purdue.
