August 6, 2009 Ivy Tech gets a huge donation; a building in downtown Muncie By SETH SLABAUGH seths@muncie.gannett.com MUNCIE -- Ivy Tech Community College will announce today that the downtown Fisher Building -- the former home of Ball Corp. -- will be donated to Ivy Tech-Muncie. The building is a gift from John Fisher, the former president of Ball Corp. who died in June, and his wife, Janice Fisher, the daughter of one of the five Ball brothers. The building will be renamed Ivy Tech Fisher Campus. The state Legislature this year rejected Ivy Tech-Muncie's request for $20 million for a new building. There has been discussion about Ivy Tech either building downtown or continuing to build on its campus in the southside Industria Centre to accommodate growth. Ivy Tech plans to announce the largest gift -- reportedly worth $20 million -- ever received by the Ivy Tech Foundation and Ivy Tech Community College at 9 a.m. today in the auditorium of the Fisher Building. The speakers will include the college's president, the chairman of the foundation, the chairman of the board of trustees, the chancellor of the East Central Region, a student, a representative of the donor and Mayor Sharon McShurley. "I heard rumors on the street two weeks ago that the Fisher Building was going to be donated to Ivy Tech," a downtown businessman told The Star Press on Wednesday. "The building is sitting empty -- not totally empty, but they're losing tenants." The second and third floors of the building are vacant. "I don't think we want to comment at this point," said Betty Wingrove, director of marketing and communications at Ivy Tech-Muncie. However, Jeff Fanter, vice president of communications at Ivy Tech, confirmed the donation of the building to The Indianapolis Star. The announcement comes as a surprise to the tenants of the four-story building. "Not that I know of," said Bob Lunsford, of Ameriprise Financial Services, when asked Wednesday if Ivy Tech was going to move into the building. Ameriprise last fall leased space on part of the first floor for five years. The other tenants -- accountants Estep Burkey and Simmons, whose lease runs out in 2011; The Star Press, and Saint-Gobain Containers accounts payable -- also knew nothing about the announcement. The newspaper just this year extended its lease of the entire fourth floor --22,070 square feet -- for 10 years. The Star Press and other current tenants will remain in the building, according to The Star. Jim Fisher was in Michigan on Wednesday and could not be reached for comment. About 4,400 students attend Ivy Tech-Muncie, which owns 124,000 square feet of space at its southside location, Wingrove said. The campus employs 50 full-time faculty, 200 part-time adjunct instructors and 124 staff. Ivy Tech is moving its culinary arts program into the Patterson Block -- a vacant, 19th-century downtown landmark. Ivy Tech is leasing that building from new owner Muncie Alliance Church. "A lot of folks would like to see us have a presence downtown," Gail Chesterfield, chancellor of Ivy Tech's East Central Region, told The Star Press last month. "We have not gotten to the point of exactly where the new building will be or how we will approach that. We did not get our planning money released from the last biennium (of the state budget). It's difficult to do planning when you don't have any money to do it with." The donation will allow Muncie's current Ivy Tech campus to be used as a more technical education location and the downtown campus as general education, Ivy Tech President Tom Snyder told The Star. According to Wingrove, Ivy Tech-Muncie has six schools: business, public and social services, education, health sciences, technology and liberal arts and sciences. The Fisher family had asked that the details of the gift not be revealed until Thursday's announcement, media coordinator T.L. Farris & Associates said in a written statement.