Trustees approve NMC Thrive campus plan
TRAVERSE CITY — NMC trustees unanimously approved a new campus master plan Monday designed to allow the college to thrive by migrating spaces between campuses and significantly expanding student housing in order to make its Front Street campus a vibrant, modernized hub for learning and living.
“Central to our plan, NMC Thrive, is the goal of enhancing campus life. By consolidating student services, developing new and modern campus housing, and revitalizing our teaching and learning spaces, we are creating a more engaging, accessible, and supportive atmosphere for our students, faculty, staff and guests,” President Nick Nissley said.
NMC Thrive is the product of a yearlong, data-driven collaborative process, last undertaken in 2012, and led by an internal steering committee with guidance from consultants TowerPinkster of Grand Rapids. Input was gathered from more than 30 stakeholder groups at in-person meetings with students, employees, neighbors and community members, as well as an online survey.
The plan lays out a decade-long vision of renovations and construction and is estimated to cost between $164 and $235 million. Funds are anticipated to come from selling unused properties, state and federal assistance — which has already been received for aviation and energy projects — as well as future fundraising. Highlights by campus include:
Front Street campus:
- 2025–26: Optimize campus space and increase vibrancy by migrating several NMC departments as well as the four University Center partners now located at the University Center campus to the Beckett Building and Scholars Hall. Consolidate student services in the Osterlin Building. Cost: $10-$14 million
- Increase and modernize student housing, adding at least 73 beds to NMC’s student housing stock, an increase of 15%. Cost: $76–$93 million
- 2027–28: Demolish current apartments and rebuild them more densely, increasing capacity from 72 to 128.
- 2028–29: Demolish East Hall and rebuild it in the style of North Hall. This would reduce occupancy from 238 to 155. Options to add floors could increase capacity to 275.
- 2030–31: Build what would become a third residence hall with a capacity of 100 on what is presently a parking lot.
- 2033–34: Develop a portion of the college’s vacant 55-acre property north of Eastern Avenue. More than half of the site, 33 acres, would remain preserved as a forested area with walking paths, while a 22-acre parcel would become a mix of housing and educational facilities. Cost: $49–98 million
University Center campus: Becomes managed as a real estate asset. Greenspire High School has a lease to occupy most of the north wing until 2033.
Aero Park Campus: A new hangar for the aviation department which will break ground this fall and renovations to the Parsons-Stulen Building. Cost: $7.2-$7.4 million
Great Lakes Campus: Renovate culinary labs in 2031. Cost: $658,000–$987,000
Rogers Observatory: No recommended changes
Other properties: Sell two and possibly three undeveloped parcels to support the other recommendations: the Appel property on the Boardman River in Blair Township, the Tezak property in Benzie County’s Almira Township and a third parcel in Mayfield Township, north of Buckley.
Release date: June 25, 2024
For more information:
Cari Noga
NMC Communications Director
cnoga@nmc.edu
(231) 392-1800 (Call or text)