State Budget Committee gives go-ahead for Bioscience Innovation Building at Purdue University-Northwest

INDIANAPOLIS – State Rep. Linda Lawson (D-Hammond) said the Indiana State Budget Committee approved $40.5 million in expenditures for the construction of the Bioscience Innovation Building on Purdue University-Northwest’s campus in Hammond.

Approval came during the committee’s meeting today on the Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne campus.

“The new Bioscience Innovation Building will open new avenues in academic opportunities for the university and economic grow for Northwest Indiana,” said Lawson. “The new building will provide more teaching and research labs as well as offices that will allow the departments to consolidate at one location instead of being spread across the campus.

“Preparing students for nursing and life sciences careers in this state-of-the-art facility will enable them to find good-paying careers in our community while helping the Region benefit economically with the high-growth fields of life sciences and nursing,” explained Lawson. “Construction of the Bioscience Innovation Building will prove to be one of the historic landmarks in the history of Purdue University-Northwest.”

Once the new facility is occupied, the Gyte Annex (the former location of the College of Nursing) will be demolished. The building served as the research facility for Inland Steel in the 1950’s. The nearly 70-year-old building has posed environmental challenges in recent years.

The Bioscience Innovation Building is the first instruction facility built on the Purdue NW’s Hammond campus since the Classroom Office Building was constructed in 1997.

The project will be funded by the 2017 biennial budget bill through fee-replaced bonding authority, $35.1 million, and the 2015 biennial budget bill through cash funded appropriations, $2.4 million. In addition, $2 million in gifts and $1 million from the University General Fund will make up the remainder of the project’s funding.