UConn officials on Wednesday approved leasing space to expand its Waterbury campus and allocating $2 million to start planning for a new School of Nursing building on its Storrs campus.
UConn’s Board of Trustees approved of administration entering into a lease with Green Hub Development III LLC for approximately 26,300 square feet of space at 36 North Main St., in Waterbury.
The space is part of the historic Odd Fellows Building and will allow UConn to expand its academic, research and administrative presence in Waterbury, according to Stephanie Reitz, a UConn spokeswoman.
The university, Reitz said, would lease part of the building, which borders UConn’s Waterbury campus, once it is renovated under a public-private partnership involving the city of Waterbury and Green Hub Development III LLC, which is controlled by Joseph Gramando.
The building has six stories totaling about 36,300 square feet.
It currently is in a state of disrepair and needs rehabilitation, according to Jeffrey P. Geoghegan, UConn’s executive vice president for finance and chief financial officer.
The city of Waterbury and Green Hub have received a $10 million grant from the state to renovate the building, and the developer will invest another $5 million toward the rehabilitation project, Geoghegan said, in a letter to the board.
UConn indicated it signed a non-binding term sheet in November 2022 to potentially lease approximately 26,300 square feet on the first, second and third floors of the building once the property renovation is complete.
Renovations are expected to take about a year and a half.
Plans are for the building to have teaching areas, simulation laboratories, wet and dry research areas, interview rooms and incubator spaces. UConn expects to house programs such as clinical and research labs and maker spaces for psychology and allied health on the first floor, instructional spaces and learning labs for nursing and health on the second floor, and laboratory space on the third floor.
UConn anticipates starting the lease at the beginning of an academic semester, either in January or August of 2025.
The initial lease will be for 20 years, with options to renew, according to UConn. The base rent in the first year of the lease will be $14 per square foot, or approximately $370,000 annually.
Also Wednesday, UConn’s Board of Trustees approved a $2 million planning budget for a new School of Nursing building on its Storrs campus.
The existing building can no longer adequately meet the nursing school’s needs in terms of size and how the space is configured, according to Reitz.
Applications to UConn’s nursing school have been “skyrocketing,” Reitz said, with about 2,900 this year, an increase of more than 300 in the past year. She said the school will continue to update its offerings to help graduates prepare for nursing careers.
The General Assembly recently approved a bond package that included up to $30 million for UConn to use toward the design and construction of a new facility for its nursing program.
This initial $2 million allocation starts the planning process. UConn’s Board of Trustees will review and discuss additional allocations for the design and construction of the building at a later time.
Designs are expected to be finished by June 2024. Following a bidding process, construction is slated to begin in November 2024, with the new building complete in July 2026, Reitz added.
Currently, UConn’s School of Nursing is in Storrs Hall, built in 1906. UConn expanded it in 2012 because the school was growing, and after the expansion, it was 51,000 gross square feet, according to the university.
Plans are for the new School of Nursing building to be located near the existing Brain Imaging Research Center, which is on Alethia Drive in Storrs, according to Reitz.
