EAST LANSING — The next phase of construction at the Packaging Building got the OK during the Sept. 11 Michigan State University Board of Trustees meeting.
The board unanimously approved a $42.5 million addition on the building.
The approved 16,000-square-foor addition would nearly double the size of the building, which sits on the south end of campus at 448 Wilson Road.
Prior to the vote, MSU President Kevin Guskiewicz said the construction is an example of "investing in our excellence" in the "top-ranked" packaging school.
In February 2024, the board approved the planning on the addition, which will be the building's third. Additions were put on the Packaging Building in 1987 and 2023.
The project is being funded through $17 million in pledged donor gifts, while the remaining $25.5 million will be paid through long-term debt, which will be paid by the School of Packaging and College of Agriculture and Natural Resources.
Earlier this year, the School of Packaging received its largest gift ever from Charles and Jacqueline Frasier, who donated $47 million to the school. Some money was earmarked for immediate needs, while the remaining funding goes to future plans.
The addition will include additional lab spaces, offices for faculty and graduate students and flexible-use spaces. There will also be spaces immediately ready to accommodate future research needs.
The MSU School of Packaging produces around 40% of the nation's packaging engineers and is the sole doctorate packaging program in the United States, according to university documents.
The board also approved an endowment to establish the Williams Scholarship, a highly competitive, merit-based scholarship intended to attract high-achieving undergraduate students and expand the number of "full-ride" scholarships given by the university. The $6.5 million funding comes from the proceeds from selling a building at 195 Crescent Road in East Lansing, according to MSU documents.
The board also approved constructing a new Transportation Services Building with a budget of $24.3 million. The board approved planning for the project during the October 2025 meeting, intended to provide a permanent home for Transportation Services so there is a centralized location for administrative, maintenance and garage operations.
All three motions were included in the meeting's consent agenda so there were no additional trustee comments on the items.
Contact Karly Graham at [email protected]. Follow her on X at @KarlyGrahamJrn.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: MSU trustees approve $42.5 million packaging building expansion