Reactions about Ivy Tech making the move to downtown Muncie.Downtown business owner reaction

The college will invest $6 million to $7 million in downtown classrooms

Click here for the interactive graphic.

By Seth Slabaugh

MUNCIE — Ivy Tech Community College plans to invest $6 million to $7 million into two projects that will bring an estimated 2,600 to 2,700 students, faculty and staff into the downtown.

The Ivy Tech Foundation will invest $2 million to $3 million into the block bordered by High, Main, Jackson and Franklin streets, where it will turn the former Star Press building into health and science classrooms.

That building was donated to the city by Gannett Co. when The Star Press moved down the street, and the Muncie Redevelopment Commission donated the structure to Ivy Tech.

The Whitinger and Co. public accountants are selling their former office, as well as other buildings in the same block as the ex-Star Press building, to Ivy Tech at a price below the appraised value. That gives the college control of that entire block, with the exception of the building housing the Waggoner, Irwin and Scheele human resources consulting firm.

The block will become a campus-like setting with parking, landscaping and the former newspaper building housing classrooms and labs for nursing, science, physical therapy and surgical technology students, said Ron Fauquher, chairman of Ivy Tech Foundation.

An estimated 1,000 to 1,200 students, faculty and staff will move into the two-story, former Star Press building after it is extensively renovated. Ivy Tech might add a third floor.

The value of the former Star Press property is estimated at $348,000, which is the average of two appraisals conducted last year, according to Bruce Baldwin, redevelopment commission director.