The Ion innovation district, located in the former Midtown Sears, celebrated its official groundbreaking Friday morning, with officials and local students placing a heavy emphasis on diversity and inclusion.

“We’re not building a new innovation center, a hub, just for those in this sector,” Mayor Sylvester Turner said in a tent placed in the building’s parking lot. “We are building it for neighborhoods all across our city.”

The Ion is set to open late next year as a gathering place for startups, large corporations seeking innovation, venture capitalists and others.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Rice University unveils plans for former Sears building

Rice Management Co. is leading the project, a renovation converting the 270,000-square-foot former department store built in 1939 into a high-end office and collaboration center.

“We wanted to create a building that would be a beehive of activity,” said Allison Thacker, president and chief investment officer of Rice Management, which manages the university’s endowment.

The redevelopment of the old Sears, at 4201 Main, is part of a larger Rice-led project that will cover 16 acres in Midtown and could ultimately include more commercial development, housing and public spaces.

Across the street from the air-conditioned festivities, students from Rice University, Texas Southern University, University of Houston and even local high schools gathered in an effort to hold Ion’s leadership accountable to those living in the community. They recently formed the Student Coalition for a Just and Equitable Innovation Corridor.

On HoustonChronicle.com: LISTEN: How an old Sears building could launch an innovation district

“The coalition’s goal is to hold the Innovation corridor’s leaders accountable to the interests and concerns of the local vulnerable populations with historical, ongoing and future connections to this area,” Mary Claire Neal, a Rice University student, said in a news conference. “What we’re concerned about are the patterns of gentrification, food deserts, the affordable housing crisis and un- and underemployment.”