Eastern Kentucky University broke ground Friday, March 28, on the first phase of a Business and Technology Center that will house a part of the College of Business & Technology and a variety of outreach programs that serve the region and Commonwealth.

Phase 1 will consist of a 78,000-square-foot, $14 million academic building that will include business classrooms, administrative and faculty offices. It also will include offices for EKU's Small Business Development Center and Center for Economic Development, Entrepreneurship and Technology (CEDET), which includes an Innovation and Commercialization Center and the Eastern Innovation Region of the Office for the New Economy. The facility, to be located on the south side of the Eastern By-Pass across from Alumni Coliseum, is expected to open in Fall 2005.

Later construction phases, not yet funded, would add a 1,500-seat performing arts center, conference facilities, exhibition space and classrooms, and other facilities for communications and technology programs within the College.

EKU President Joanne Glasser said the groundbreaking "sends a strong and clear message to several constituencies. It sends a strong message to current and future students because the facility will give them the best possible learning environment. Secondly, the business community can see that EKU is seriously committed to taking our business and technology programs to new levels of excellence. Lastly, what we're doing here today signals the region we serve that we are strongly committed to working hand in hand with community leaders to enhance economic development and the quality of life throughout the region and Commonwealth."

Dr. Robert Rogow, dean of the College of Business & Technology, said the first phase of the Center "will give our business programs in particular much greater visibility. Currently, those programs are spread over four buildings, so this will bring everyone together."

The Innovation and Commercialization Center, part of the Commonwealth's New Economy initiative, includes a business incubator that will specialize in the development of new products and services related to safety and security. The College of Business & Technology will partner with EKU's College of Justice & Safety in the development of those products and services.

"The incubator can serve as a lab for students and faculty in our business programs," Rogow said, "and provides us an opportunity to enhance the economy in Madison County and throughout the region."

When all phases of construction are eventually completed, Rogow said the facility "will meet a wide variety of needs, not only for the University but for the community and region as
well."

Others participating in the brief ceremony included State Rep. Harry Moberly Jr., State Sen. Ed Worley and Madison County Judge-Executive Kent Clark. Student Regent Mary Hall, a senior marketing major from Ravenna, served as emcee.