IU Kokomo debuts new multipurpose hall
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Indiana University Kokomo held a grand opening Tuesday for a multi-use building that officials hope will have an impact beyond campus.
The new Innovation Hall includes a variety of student spaces such as a multicultural center, an esports arena and other study spaces. The hall also features a technology studio, business analytics lab and space for the KEY Center for Innovation.
Kokomo Mayor Tyler Moore said that professional space will benefit the city as a whole, as well as university students.
“This continues to show not just the importance and the value that IU Kokomo has within the IU family, but the value that it brings to Kokomo, Howard County, and this region,” Moore said in a news release. “It is such an asset and economic development draw for our region. Our first READI initiative showed the importance of this regional draw to help fund this amazing transformation and what it provides not only to the students, but to the region and economic development in our community.”
Innovation Hall received funding from the first iteration of Regional Economic Acceleration and Development Initiative, or READI, grants. Indiana Secretary of Commerce David Rosenberg was on hand to cut the ribbon and said Innovation Hall is the type of shared space between community and not-for-profits that READI was meant to foster.
“This project is exactly what READI set out to do—to provide funding to projects that will prove transformational to communities and assist them in becoming places where Hoosiers can learn, play and live,” Rosenberg said in the release.
Innovation Hall is located in the west wing of the Kelley Student Center on IU Kokomo’s campus.