Downtown Cedar Rapids can expect an influx of UI students in the near future.

The UI Tippie School of Management’s M.B.A.-Professionals and Managers program is moving into a new facility in the downtown area after being forced to vacate its previous location because of last year’s flooding.

Curt Hunter, dean of the Tippie College of Business, said the 12,000-square-foot facility will help consolidate classes to one location. Currently, classes for the part-time program are dispersed across the UI campus, Kirkwood Community College, and the Cedar Rapids Chamber of Commerce’s boardroom.

“The inconvenient dispersal of the classes, plus the fact that we had outgrown our previous facility, made relocating an obvious decision,” he said.

Officials cite the need to revitalize the downtown Cedar Rapids area, which was devastated by the flooding, as a reason for centralizing all classrooms there instead of in Iowa City.

Though UI officials said the new facility will be beneficial, other universities seem to be focusing more on their main campus.

Darrell Bazzell, the vice chancellor for administration at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said expanding its campus is not part of the university’s strategy.

“We are focusing on meeting the needs on campus,” he said. “We value having classes close by and we see no need to expand beyond campus boundaries.”

Iowa State University also has no future plans for building academic buildings in other cities, though they also have facilities in Des Moines, ISU Provost Betsy Hoffman said.

As for the UI’s Cedar Rapids presence, Hunter described the move to this new location as a “win, win, win, win” situation, saying it will benefit the UI, local business, Cedar Rapids, and the state.

“Local businesses [in Cedar Rapids] can get training for their employees, there will be more people using the businesses downtown, and the downtown will become more vibrant and rejuvenated,” he said.

The project will cost $1.2 million; it is being paid for in part by federal stimulus money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, as well as a $200,000 grant from the Hall-Perrine Foundation in Cedar Rapids — the philanthropic company led by state Board of Regents member Jack Evans. Stephen Emerson, the building’s owner, is also contributing to the reconstruction costs.

With some main campus projects on hold due to the tightening budget, officials maintain it’s a good idea to spend money on exporting resources.

Jarjisu Sa-Aadu, the associate dean for the Tippie School of Management, said the new facility will be a revenue generator. The school is consistently seeing higher enrollment numbers, he said, adding more students will be able to utilize the program, resulting in more tuition.

“The revenue generated will more than outweigh the [facility] costs,” Sa-Aadu said. “The large revenue will help support our faculty and help expand the school as a whole.”

The facility is set to open in November, when officials plan to move a select number of classes to the building. The grand opening for the facility is planned to be in December, and all M.B.A. -Professionals and Managers classes will be moved by January, in time for the spring semester.