Ilitch family to give $40M for new WSU business school

A $40-million donation by the Ilitch family to construct and help fund a new Wayne State University business school near downtown Detroit could be finalized as soon as Friday in a special university board meeting, according to a person familiar with the family’s plans.

The landmark donation will include $35 million to build the school plus a $5-million endowment, according to this person, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the plans. The building to be marketed as "Detroit's business school" would be located on property owned by the family and near the new Red Wings arena under construction on Woodward Avenue north of downtown Detroit. It would be south of the university’s main Midtown campus, the person said.

Located on the southwest corner of Woodward and Temple Street, it would be the university's first new construction for its business school outside of the university’s Midtown campus. It was unclear how quickly construction would begin, but the school is expected to be completed by 2018.

To help connect the new business school to other university facilities, a Wayne State shuttle will loop back and forth with the main campus. That would be similar to a bus linking the main university to its medical campus. The Wayne State police department will also patrol the building and grounds at the new business school site, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Part of the reason for the move, according to a person briefed on the plan, is to bring graduate business students closer to the growing professional community in downtown. Those students might be better able to pursue a degree part-time if classrooms were closer to their downtown workplaces, this person said.

The school would be renamed the Mike Ilitch School of Business for its largest benefactor, according to the person familiar with the family's plans. An official announcement could come as soon as this week, two sources said.

Another person familiar with the donation confirmed on Tuesday the broad outline of the plan to fund a new school near the arena construction site by one of Detroit's most prominent corporate citizens.

The school would be one part of a larger redevelopment effort by the Ilitches and others in the northern greater downtown area.

The new business school could bring an estimated 3,000 university students, faculty and staff into the heart of downtown, according to those briefed on the plans. It could also serve to help bridge the gap between two rebounding neighborhoods — downtown and Midtown — soon-to-be linked through the new M-1 light-rail line.

A message left for the family company’s spokesman was not immediately returned on Tuesday. Wayne State spokesman Matt Lockwood declined to comment.

But when rumors of a collaboration between the Ilitches and Wayne State for a new business school first surfaced in January, Doug Kuiper, a spokesman for Ilitch Holdings, told several news organizations in a statement that “as longtime neighbors and partners in Detroit’s revitalization, we’re excited to be discussing new opportunities to collaborate with Wayne State in the District Detroit.”

Last year, Christopher Ilitch, son of Little Caesars founders Mike and Marian Ilitch and president and CEO of Ilitch Holdings, parent company to Little Caesars, announced a $650-million redevelopment plan for a new Wings arena and larger entertainment district covering a mostly vacant stretch on the northern edge of downtown.

“I should start by saying, ‘Howdy neighbors. It’s good to be here,’ ” Chris Ilitch said at a Wayne State lecture last year entitled “Investing in Detroit.”

The arena district has been billed as one of the city’s boldest and most significant developments since the Renaissance Center of the 1970s. The sweeping investment could create as many as 2,000 new residential units, dozens of shops, walkable European-style streets and a multipurpose arena.

Supporters of the Wayne State expansion into downtown envision the new school, along with the arena complex, as another prominent symbol of the Ilitches' role in the city’s economic rebirth. The arena is on schedule to be finished in the fall of 2017, company officials said earlier this month.

The development site for the arena and business school building across roughly dozens of blocks is already anchored on the southern end by the Fox Theatre, Comerica Park and Ford Field.

Currently, the school, with 2,400 undergraduate and 850 graduate students and 85 faculty members, is housed in the Meyer and Anna Prentis Building on the university's Midtown campus.

Starting with one pizza shop in 1959, Mike and Marian Ilitch built their Little Caesars pizza business into one of the nation’s biggest, then branched out into sports and entertainment. Christopher Ilitch now heads the family ventures under the umbrella known as Ilitch Holdings with more than $3 billion a year in revenue.

In addition to the Red Wings and Little Caesars, the most important brands within the Ilitch network include the Detroit Tigers and Olympia Entertainment.

The gift from the longtime Detroit businessman and philanthropist would be one of the state’s largest single contributions to any university in recent times.

The University of Michigan based in Ann Arbor is in the midst of a $4-billion fund-raising campaign, which includes raising $1 billion for student aid. The campaign was kicked off by a $200-million gift from real estate developer and Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross. Half of the gift was targeted for the business school and the other half was targeted to the athletic department.

At Michigan State University in East Lansing, through Aug. 31, more than $1 billion has been committed toward a $1.5-billion campaign goal.

The Ilitches’ gift would be part of Wayne State’s $750-million fund-raising campaign. The university intends to seek additional support from university alumni and friends to complete the new facility, according to a person briefed on the plan. In 2014, the Ilitches donated $8.5 million to the Wayne State University surgery department to aid innovation at its medical school.

Free Press Staff Writer John Gallagher contributed to this report.