A $22.5 million renovation project aims to breathe new life into a nearly century-old business education building in downtown Minneapolis.

Last week, Minneapolis College and Metropolitan State University announced that they have begun renovations on their joint business school center on Harmon Place in downtown Minneapolis. The schools are upgrading the building with the help of funding approved by the Minnesota Legislature in its most recent session.

Formally known as the Management Education Center, the building will see a “total gut and renovation” on three floors, according to a news release issued Sept. 26. Once the work is completed, the center will have 18 new classrooms with computer labs, 18 additional classrooms, an audio/video recording space, and student breakout and lounge spaces.

Additionally, the upgraded building will feature a new Entrepreneurship Center designed to provide applied learning experiences for students and act as a resource for small businesses in the Twin Cities. The new center will particularly focus on providing growth opportunities to minority-owned businesses in the Twin Cities, according to the schools. The project is set to be completed by December 2024.

The upgrade has been in the works for years, Minneapolis College VP of academic affairs Gail O’Kane told TCB.

“Our grand goal is to really support not just the students at our college but to provide a key resource for the business community,” she said.

This is one of the largest projects Minneapolis College has ever taken on, and the biggest collaboration Minneapolis College and Metro State have partnered on to date, O’Kane noted.

Since 2020, enrollment in the Minneapolis College’s business school has “stabilized” to about 750 total students each year, O’Kane said. The school aims to boost diversity of its student body in the years ahead.

The business school’s new Applied Professional Skills (APS) certificate released this fall aims to continue outreach to underprivileged groups.

“The program is designed to provide the very most current and essential business skills that people need to quickly get into the workforce,” O’Kane said. “The goal is to provide privilege to students who came through education systems that didn’t provide them with that.”

The building that houses the Management Education Center has a storied history. Originally constructed in 1927 as an office for Standard Oil, the structure went on to serve as the headquarters of the Billy Graham Evangelical Association in the 1960s. Minneapolis College first transformed the space into offices and classrooms in 2005.