EAST LANSING, Mich. - Michigan State University will add an auxiliary gymnasium and expanded office space to the Jack Breslin Student Events Center, the university announced today.
The improvements to the Breslin Center, home of the Spartan men's and women's basketball teams, will be privately funded. They are designed to eliminate scheduling conflicts and allow greater flexibility for practice and meeting times for the teams.
It has been recommended to the MSU Board of Trustees that the new complex be named for the late Alfred Berkowitz, a businessman, U.S. Army veteran and pharmacist from southeast Michigan, whose private foundation has pledged $2 million toward the project.
Berkowitz, developer of several businesses and founder of Berkowitz Steel Co., which at one time provided the steel for the Lafayette Towers in downtown Detroit, was a noted philanthropist. His contributions include several significant gifts to higher education and other organizations for facilities and other programs.
"Though this gift from the Berkowitz Foundation was arranged before the MSU men's basketball team won the national championship, there was already a strong feeling that Michigan State has a premier basketball program," said David Levine, trustee of the Alfred Berkowitz Foundation.
"Men's basketball has reached the pinnacle and needs the expansion to stay there, and women's basketball is on the verge of joining the men's program as a perennial top team," Levine added. "The naming of the complex is a true honor and enables me to recognize Alfred Berkowitz in perpetuity."
Levine, a 1969 graduate of the College of Social Science at Michigan State University and personal friend and attorney of Berkowitz, arranged the gift.
The expansion also is made possible by other significant private gift commitments of $500,000 from Randall Pittman of Ann Arbor; $250,000 from Joe and Shirley Pentecost of Okemos; $250,000 from Peter and Joan Secchia of Grand Rapids; and $100,000 from Michael Stein of Bloomfield Hills. Fundraising for the expansion is half way to its $5.9 million goal, and efforts are ongoing.
The new 9,000-square-foot auxiliary gym will be directly south of the existing auxiliary gym on the mezzanine level. It will relieve scheduling conflicts and allow focused practice time for both the men's and women's basketball teams. Basketball camps and other special events also will benefit from this new space.
New staff offices will provide an opportunity for confidential interaction between coaches and players, as well as enhance the image for recruits of the management, staff and support systems at the university. The expansion also includes video review and conference rooms.
"When you've worked so hard to develop a program, be it athletic or academic, and your efforts result in your placement among the elite programs, it is important to take steps to maintain that status," MSU President Peter McPherson said. "The bar has been raised quite significantly, and the generosity of our donors will help Michigan State University remain in the forefront."
Construction on the project should begin in January 2003.