The University of Toledo is in line for a $275 million overhaul.
The board of trustees on Monday approved a master plan that outlines main-campus renovations and building projects to take place over the next decade.
UT will seek donations to cover about $175 million of the cost. About $75 to $80 million would come from the state, and the university would issue bonds to finance the remaining $20 to $25 million for a total project of up to $275 million.
The document is the first comprehensive master plan since UT merged with the former Medical College of Ohio in 2006.
RELATED: Summary of UT’s approved master plan
“I think it’s exciting to think about what will the university look like in the next decade and how we might continue to strengthen the experience for our students and faculty and staff and the broader community,” university President Sharon Gaber said.
The master plan calls for the university to vacate the Scott Park campus by moving athletic fields to the main campus and relocating the roughly 100 human resources and finance employees who work at Scott Park. Those employees will begin to move their offices in the next few months to the main and health science campuses, said Jason Toth, associate vice president for facilities and construction.
He said the university is “still working through the details” of what to do with the 177-acre Scott Park site, located off Nebraska Avenue. There are no current plans to remove tenants, which include Toledo Public Schools’ Toledo Early College High School and area community colleges.
The plan also includes the renovation of the Thompson Student Union, construction of a new research facility near the engineering buildings, and mixed-used retail and student apartments along Dorr Street, and expanded Greek housing.
The campaign’s first five years would include classroom renovations inside the school’s architectural centerpiece, University Hall, and other buildings; renovations to Carlson Library and the student union, and Greek housing upgrades.
A second phase, to be done in six to 10 years, would continue classroom and office renovations, construct the new research building, and create a recreation complex at Dorr Street and Byrne Road.
Mr. Toth said UT could seek donations to pay for the new athletic facilities and the multidisciplinary research building.
Buildings to be removed include the Transportation Center, which would be replaced by a new public safety building, as well as the east and west dormitory wings of Carter Hall, to be replaced by baseball and softball fields currently located at Scott Park. Palmer Hall would be torn down and replaced with green space at the engineering site.
The university previously announced a $12 million Parks Tower renovation, which will require the high-rise dormitory to close next school year. That project is to be paid for with a different $30 million bond issue approved by the board in October; that bond issue also will cover deferred maintenance costs outside the master plan’s scope.
UT plans to spend about $500,000 to refurbish the doomed Carter Hall, which has been closed for a couple of years, to house students temporarily displaced by the Parks Tower renovation.
Mr. Toth said it’s necessary to spend money to get Carter Hall back in use, even though the master plan calls for the residence hall to be torn down in the next 10 years.
“We need the beds for our students,” he said. “In order to meet the needs we need to reopen Carter Hall to allow a place for our students to live on campus.”
He described the expense to fix up Carter Hall, built in the mid-1960s, as the “cost of doing business.”
The master plan does not include recommendations for the health science campus. Officials said the Arlington Avenue campus was left out of the document because of ongoing discussions about the future of the University of Toledo Medical Center, though Ms. Gaber announced last month it will remain a university-owned teaching hospital.
UT trustees approved the master plan by a 6-0 vote. Gary Thieman was absent and board chairman Sharon Speyer abstained. Ms. Speyer, who is president of the Northwest Ohio Region for Huntington National Bank, said after the meeting that she refrained from voting because of her bank job and the expected bond issue related to the master plan.
Contact Vanessa McCray at: vmccray@theblade.com or 419-724-6065, or on Twitter @vanmccray.
First Published February 21, 2017, 5:00 a.m.
