Michigan State University planning innovation park for 140 acres on campus

Clarification: This article has been updated to include additional information from Michigan State University about the potential uses of the innovation park and to clarify that bonds sold to fund the Larry Nassar settlement will be paid off with interest from investments, not from endowment interest.

EAST LANSING – Michigan State University is planning a new innovation park on campus, the head of the school’s governing board said Friday morning. 

Board of Trustees Chair Dianne Byrum said the university hopes to transform 140 acres of vacant property on South Harrison Road into a research park. 

The land, about 0.2 square miles, makes up most of the once bustling Spartan Village apartment complex, university spokeswoman Emily Guerrant confirmed. 

Guerrant said the innovation park, which Byrum described as a research park, would have a research focus but also could have retail, housing and other multi-use purposes.

Byrum said the park has been a theoretical project for several years. She said it’s still in the planning phases and not set in stone. 

The innovation park would develop through public-private partnerships, Byrum said, and would complement the MSU Foundation’s University Corporate Research Park, which is located in Lansing just south of Candlewood Suites and the University Club. 

She characterized the planned research and innovation park as one of many exciting opportunities MSU hopes to leverage in the new decade. 

“MSU’s going to explode in research,” Byrum said during an hour-long meeting with the Lansing State Journal’s editorial board. 

Currently, the university receives about $17 million annually for research from federal grants and other funding sources. 

Armed with new President Samuel Stanley’s extensive research background and strengthening partnerships with McLaren Health Care and Spectrum Health, officials expect to see lots of growth in research, Byrum said. 

Nassar settlement capped bonding ability

Though the university has many opportunities, it also faces challenges, Byrum acknowledged. 

Among those is a multi-million dollar debt responsibility that she said will take decades to pay off and that has capped the university’s bonding capacity. 

MSU bonded $500 million to cover legal settlements with hundreds of women who were abused by former MSU sports medicine doctor Larry Nassar under the guise of medical treatment. Nassar is now serving 60 years in federal prison on child pornography charges.

Byrum said there have been some settlement agreements with individual companies that insure the university, but those have produced minor amounts to help with paying off the debt. 

She stressed the money will not come from tuition.

Instead, it’s coming from interest on investments, Byrum said, echoing a statement Stanley made in an earlier meeting with the LSJ editorial board.

The debt payments also will mean deferring both ongoing maintenance and new construction, she said, adding that the costs are about half of the university’s maintenance budget. 

“I don’t foresee Michigan State doing any major construction itself for the next 3 or 3½ years,” Byrum said, adding officials simply don’t have the capacity to bond for major projects until they pay off more of the current debt. 

She said there are reserves to cover extreme circumstances, such as if the university had to rebuilt a structure after a tornado, and there may still be construction funded by donors or public-private partnerships. 

Survivors, families, university still healing

Byrum also acknowledged many of the women Nassar abused, and their family members, are still healing. 

She understands their healing is a journey and wants to make sure they have space to continue it. 

The university also is still in its own healing journey, she said. 

“The best way for the university to heal is to make sure that we are putting policies and procedures in place and holding people accountable so that it doesn’t happen again,” Byrum said. 

She said that means more focus on student health and mental health and more transparency. 

The latter has caused criticism from those who continue to call on the Board of Trustees to waive attorney-client privilege and release some 6,000 documents related to the way it addressed complaints against Nassar. 

Byrum said she thought the board had reached a compromise when 54B District Court Judge Richard Ball conducted a year-long review of the documents in question and found about 100 of them did not fall under attorney-client privilege. 

As people have continued to call for their release, though, the most recently appointed trustee, Renee Knake, is looking over the documents. After Knake’s decision, several additional trustees told Michigan media outlets that they also would review the documents.

Byrum said that review is likely to take months, after which point the board will have internal discussions and hopefully come to a consensus its members can then present to the public. 

“There is no reason for anyone to believe there is anything hidden in those documents,” Byrum said. 

Contact reporter Megan Banta at (517) 377-1261 or [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @MeganBanta_1.