'Dream' come true: Missouri State to build alumni center on Springfield campus

It has long been the dream of the Missouri State University Foundation to build an alumni center on the Springfield campus. That now appears within reach.

With the sale of the existing alumni center in downtown Springfield to the Community Foundation of the Ozarks — a pact made public Thursday — the foundation is ready to take the next step.

A proposal to start the initial stages of planning and design work will go to the MSU Board of Governors on Friday.

"For a while, we've had a dream that we would be in a more central part, a more visible part, of the university," said Brent Dunn, vice president of university advancement and executive director of the foundation.

"We're sort of growing up into this type of facility. This is a perfect time to do this."

Dunn said while the existing alumni center was owned by the foundation, the one built on campus will be owned by the university as a partnership with the foundation.

In addition to annual giving, which has grown steadily, the foundation recently raised $274 million for the university as part of the Onward Upward campaign.

Asked the cost of the new alumni center, Dunn said it is too early to know an exact amount but estimated it will be $18 to $20 million.

CFO has agreed to pay $5.8 million for the existing building, which will get the project started. "We will have to raise more money," he said.

Created in 1981, the foundation initially took up space in Carrington Hall and then moved to the Burgess House on campus, where it grew to 16 employees.

The foundation needed more space and so it purchased a former bank at 300 S. Jefferson Ave., which was named the Meyer Alumni Center in honor of alumnus and longtime supporter Kenneth E. Meyer, who died in 2022. Dunn said Meyer will be honored in the new center.

"It was a bank and has been renovated over the years to make it work for us. But now we have the opportunity to build a brand new building that is really for our specific needs," he said.

For example, the existing hospitality room can only comfortably accommodate 80 people. That means many events have to be scheduled elsewhere.

The current building downtown has more than enough space. The foundation takes up part of the building but other sections are leased to the university and local businesses.

"It is not about the space, it is about the location," he said.

The foundation will continue to operate in its existing location, as part of a lease-back agreement with CFO, for the next two years.

Dunn said construction of the new center is expected to break ground in the spring or summer of 2025 and open a year or so later.

"Because we are building this specifically for advancement and for our needs, we will have lots and lots of naming opportunities in the building, inside and out," Dunn said.

More: Community Foundation of the Ozarks buys downtown MSU alumni center as its 'forever home'

New alumni center will have more event space

Dunn said preliminary plans for the new alumni center call for it be located along National Avenue, just north of the Davis-Harrington Welcome Center. They will be separated by Bear Boulevard.

"There is a lot of synergy," Dunn said. "It's interesting, students start their journey at the welcome center and then right across the street, they continue their life-long journey in that facility."

The footprint will be smaller than the existing Meyer Alumni Center but the configuration of the new center will be much different.

"We need more event space, bigger event space, more collaboration space," Dunn said. "With offices, we want it to be where we can grow into more space down the road."

Talks with CFO started in April. By last fall, Dunn said the foundation felt confident enough about the deal that staff started to visit alumni centers at major universities in Kansas, Oklahoma, Utah and North Dakota.

Dunn said the visits inspired planning for the new alumni center. For example, the building will feature a history of Missouri State, illustrated digitally and through artifacts.

"We want this to be a space where students, faculty, friends and alumni can gather for all variety of things. We want this to be a photo-op type of area where you would meet up," Dunn said. "It's a game-changer for our purpose so we want people to go to this building and to have memories."

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Dunn said new center will be a "big exclamation mark" for the campus.

"We will be so visible in this new location that we will be ingrained in university life," he said. "It will have an impact on future engagement and future philanthropy for the entire school. It's making a statement that we're a major part of the institution and we are here for now and we are here for the future of this institution."

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Missouri State plans to build new alumni center on Springfield campus