Wichita State’s proposed innovation campus clears financial hurdle with county board vote

The top people at Wichita State University want to construct buildings for the proposed new innovation campus.

They need money.

They found it Wednesday, with a vote by the Sedgwick County Commission that will allow them to start construction on the $43 million Experiential Building at WSU.

What happened with that vote, WSU president John Bardo said, is a major step in what he says is “the best thing I’ve ever done.” It will allow WSU, he said, to grow jobs for Wichita, which he considers his hometown.

What happened with that 5-0 vote, he said, is complicated in the details but simple as a whole.

The county gave permission for WSU to leverage some money from property taxes that WSU receives in order to obtain bonds to build buildings.

County taxpayers have given money to Wichita State University for half a century. The 1.5 mill levy raises about $6.2 million a year from property taxes.

Most of the money in recent years has gone to scholarships for Sedgwick County residents attending WSU, said Andy Schlapp, WSU’s governmental relations director. WSU wants to use part of it to build the new experiential building on the innovation campus, but needed the county’s approval to do that.

Property taxes will not rise, and scholarships will not shrink, Schlapp said.

Sedgwick County’s Public Building Commission will sell bonds to build the experiential building at WSU, roads around it, and other facilities, said Chris Chronis, the county’s chief financial officer.

It will be built by contractors hired by WSU, but the buildings will be owned by the building commission and leased by WSU – using the mill levy money to pay down principal and interest on the bonds.

Using mill levy money to construct buildings has been done in the past, but not recently, Schlapp said.

Historically, he said, the mill levy money was used for bond issues or other things involving buildings. In recent history, he said, the money went to scholarships, not only to help Sedgwick County residents start their university education in their hometown, but also to ensure that the best of them stayed at WSU to finish their degrees.

But things are changing now, he said. Bardo has proposed the building of an innovation campus that will mandate more interaction with the community, entrepreneurs, inventors, and partnerships with businesses. They will need new buildings to do that.

“We have two missions here,” Schlapp said. “We need to have an educated work force. And we need a new infrastructure to compete globally.”

Bardo is proposing that the state, businesses, industries and students join in a new partnership that, if accomplished, would increase the size of the campus by about 50 percent.

One benefit this move would make possible: Sedgwick County students, already getting that scholarship, will have greatly increased chances of finding a job while still in school, WSU officials said.

“With the innovation campus I am creating, students will have the ability to be employed with private companies working with us at the innovation campus,” said John Tomblin, WSU’s vice president for research and technology transfer. “They will be able to do that, and learn from a good company on the job, while they are getting their degrees.”

“Those jobs won’t be internships, but real jobs,” Tomblin said. “Real jobs, real money, earned in addition to the scholarships.”

He plans to start with a $43 million Experiential Building. Plans call for spending another $70 million, including $12 million in state money, for a new business school alongside a new innovation building.

During the next 20 years, if things work out as Bardo hopes, WSU and its partners will build business buildings, residence halls for students and graduate students, apartments for retirees wanting to live on a college campus, a 600-space parking garage, a hotel, ponds, fountains, walking paths, another student center and more, all constructed on the university golf course, which borders Oliver from 17th to 21st streets.

This story was originally published September 4, 2014 at 6:48 PM with the headline "Wichita State’s proposed innovation campus clears financial hurdle with county board vote."