Regents approve plan for new $425 million facility to house UT Red McCombs Business School

The University of Texas Red McCombs Business School is closer to getting a new home on campus after the UT System Board of Regents agreed to advance planning for a $425 million facility to house the growing program.

The proposed 10-story building would be built next to Robert B. Rowling Hall, UT’s graduate business facility, and will include an underground parking area, classrooms, faculty and administrative offices, student collaborative spaces, a career center and an event area.

Lillian Mills, the dean of the McCombs School of Business, said she is thrilled by the board.

"In conjunction with Rowling Hall and our distinguished AT&T Executive Education Conference Center and Hotel, the Texas McCombs business enclave is poised to become a cornerstone of the UT campus," Mills wrote in an email Friday to the American-Statesman. "It will provide a dynamic environment for academic growth and foster vibrant discussions on innovation and commerce in Austin, propelling us towards a collective mission to positively impact the world."

The board on Wednesday specifically approved including this project in the UT System's Capital Improvement Program ― a six-year plan for major construction and renovation projects ― and it signed off on the total project cost as well as the design development for the first phase, and appropriated funding for that work.

UT President Jay Hartzell applauded the board's approval for the new business school facility as there are about 5,000 undergraduate students with business majors, and the new building will allow the university to accommodate the school's growth.

“This will let us design classrooms for the way students are learning business today,” Hartzell said. “And it’s a big project compared to most because it’s a big business school.”

The board also advanced planning for a second UT project — renovating the Montopolis Research Center — as well as capital projects for UT-Arlington, UT-Dallas and the UT MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Hartzell told the regents at the meeting that construction on the business school building is expected to start November 2024 and end May 2028.

The definition phase of the project — the initial proposal — was approved in August 2021. This next phase — the board's vote to include the new facility in its capital improvement plan — will allow the university to get the site ready for the new business school building, which will include demolishing the Dobie Parking Garage.

Next year, UT expects to return to the board for approval on design developments and funding for the second stage of the project.

The new building is expected to help McCombs fulfill its 2011 strategic plan promise of providing state-of-the-art classrooms and spaces by 2028 and to help the school increase its reputation and ranking, according to the agenda book.

The site of the current business school will then be used by the Steve Hicks School of Social Work, allowing UT to build a new practice facility for the Longhorn football team along San Jacinto Boulevard where the social work school was located.

'Bring it back up to the cutting edge'

The UT system's board also approved including the Montopolis Research Center's proposed renovation into its Capital Improvement Program as part of the state's push to make Texas more competitive for national CHIPS Act funding. Officials hope the federal funds will help boost semiconductor research, development and production at UT, which could help the supply chain, national security and the education of industry innovators.

The board also approved that project's initial design development.

Hartzell told the regents that the 391,000-square-foot renovation would likely be the biggest investment so far in helping meet the Texas Institute for Electronics’ goals for semiconductor manufacturing.

“We’re lucky, we’re one of the few universities with a 65,000-square-foot cleanroom that’s ready to go,” Hartzell told the American-Statesman after the board's meeting Thursday. “Today’s board action was to allow us to put the right equipment in that cleanroom in that facility to bring it back up to the cutting edge of today.”

The center's Southeast Austin location was home to the Sematech Research Center in 1988 — one of the original semiconductor manufacturing technology sites — making the renovations a full circle moment, he said.

Construction is expected to begin February 2024 and finish March 2025. It is estimated to cost about $198 million.

Board members approved these projects Wednesday, on the first day of a two-day quarterly meeting.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: University of Texas regents OK new facility for McCombs Business School