HARTFORD — The University of Connecticut will not consolidate its graduate business school in the city because the school’s enrollment is growing too rapidly to fit into the university’s new downtown campus.
UConn is renewing its lease for four floors at 100 Constitution Plaza and is taking on another two floors in the tower to accommodate the increased enrollment and to create more large classrooms, according to a July 20 memo from UConn’s Chief Financial Officer Scott A. Jordan to the university’s board of trustees.
The university initially planned to move the Graduate Business Learning Center and other business school operations from Constitution Plaza to the $140 million campus now under construction at Front Street on the former Hartford Times property.
In 2013, Jordan said, the business program fit into the new campus. Plans called for the program to occupy half of 38 Prospect St., just north of the Times property and purchased by the university to add space to the campus. The business programs would have shared 38 Prospect with the School of Social Work.
Jordan said the graduate programs in downtown Hartford have experienced rapid growth, especially in the last two years. The programs now have 1,113 students, and the university is projecting an increase of 235 students, or a 21 percent increase in the last year alone, Jordan said.
The learning center is projecting further enrollment growth in the next few years. As a result, 38 Prospect St. now is too small, if it is to be shared by the School of Social Work, Jordan said.
UConn did explore the possibility of dividing the graduate business programs between 38 Prospect and the new complex now under construction.
“But it would likely have to be spread over multiple floors in a building or amongst several buildings, and would likely not be able to stay as a contiguous and discrete unit,” Jordan wrote.
UConn saw renewing at Constitution Plaza — where the learning center has been located since 2004 with its signature, Wall Street-style Jumbotron — as the better option. There was also the option of contiguous expansion space.
Neither Jordan nor John A. Elliott, dean of the UConn School of Business, were available for comment Friday.
With the additional two floors, the learning center will have six 65-seat classrooms and 16 mid-size classrooms with between 30 and 48 seats.
The current lease expires in 2017. The new lease would run 101/2 years with two, 5-year renewal options for the 63,200 square feet of office space. The lease terms call for a market rent slightly below $22 per square foot with a 25-cent increase each year of the lease.
Christopher Ostop, executive vice president at the Hartford office of commercial real estate services firm JLL, said Friday the UConn renewal and expansion will keep 100 Constitution’s office space at 100 percent occupancy. And for the city, it keeps a diverse mix of tenants on the plaza, which now also includes apartment tenants at the nearby Spectra, converted from a former hotel.
Trinity College also plans to establish a downtown campus on Constitution Plaza. Trinity purchased 200 Constitution Plaza in 2015, but it is considering selling it and leasing back space. The college discovered it only needed roughly a third of the five-story, 135,000-square-foot building.
UConn is building the new downtown campus at Front Street to replace its aging regional location in West Hartford. The downtown Hartford campus is expected to welcome its first students in fall, 2017.
