December 7, 2018

Board approves commencement of Union Club Hotel renovation planning, real estate transactions

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — The Purdue University Board of Trustees on Friday (Dec. 7) granted approval to accept gifts from Purdue alumnus and former trustee Bruce White and his wife, Beth, along with the Dean and Barbara White Foundation, which will fund a transformative renovation of the Union Club Hotel, and empowered a team to begin the preliminary project planning. The board also approved the sale of land in the Purdue Aerospace Technology Park on the West Lafayette campus and the acquisition of real estate adjacent to the Purdue Fort Wayne campus. 

Announced during the September 2018 Homecoming festivities at Purdue and the launch of the university’s yearlong sesquicentennial celebration, the $30 million gifts from the White family will enable the modernization of the Union Club Hotel, converting it to a world-class hotel and adding a formal restaurant and bar, which, once completed, will provide a laboratory learning environment that will offer training and internship opportunities for Purdue students.

Built in phases from 1929-53 as an addition to the Purdue Memorial Union, the Union Club Hotel has not received significant upgrades in recent years. The renovation, a schedule for which has not been determined, will include upgrades in look and feel, furnishings, fixtures and amenities for the hotel. Additionally, areas of the Purdue Memorial Union, which opened in 1924, may be included in the renovation scope.

Trustees also approved two real estate transactions: The sale of approximately four acres of university-owned land in West Lafayette along Newman Road to the Purdue Research Foundation, which supplements the August 2016 exchange of land to further Discovery Park development in the Purdue Aerospace Technology Park, known as the Aerospace District, and the purchase of the 76,715-square-foot Park 3000 Building and the 12.76 acres on which it sits, adjacent to the Purdue Fort Wayne campus, to be used for instructional and administrative purposes.

Source: Michael B. Cline, 765-494-8000, mbcline@purdue.edu

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