Purdue Fort Wayne breaks ground on $25M music building
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(pictured L to R) State Rep. Matt Lehman, R-Berne; Ian Hyatt, Purdue University chief of staff to the president; Chuck Surack and Lisa Surack; PFW Chancellor Ron Elsenbaumer; and John O’Connell, dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts. (photo provided)
Purdue University Fort Wayne on Tuesday marked the beginning of construction on a new building designed to support its School of Music.
The $25 million Surack-Sweetwater Music Industry Building is being named in recognition of Chuck and Lisa Surack, who the university said have been longtime supporters of the music school and donated $6 million for the project.
Chuck Surack is the founder and former CEO of Fort Wayne-based music retailer Sweetwater and said the project is a “major investment in the future of music education in our community.”
The 26,000-square-foot building will house the university’s popular music, music industry, and music technology programs. When complete, it will feature three recording studios and control rooms, 10 edit suites, an audio lab, two rehearsal spaces, a large classroom, seven offices and a conference room.
“The new state-of-the-art facility will nurture and develop musicians, create new opportunities for learning and creativity, and support the growth of the music scene in Fort Wayne,” Surack said in a news release.
The bigger of the two rehearsal spaces, totaling more than 3,000 square feet, is being named the Marsha Walb Heller Rehearsal Hall in recognition of a gift from David and Jill Heller, the amount of which was not disclosed.
Purdue Fort Wayne opened its existing School of Music facility on the Sweetwater corporate campus in 2018. Since that time, enrollment has grown from 33 students to 147 at the start of the current academic year.
The new facility will be located on Purdue Fort Wayne’s main campus, connecting via a second-floor skybridge to the existing PFW Music Center. It will also house the school’s Gold Top Music Group record label, which was established in 2021.
“We are fortunate to be creating a music industry incubator like no other in the country,” said John O’Connell, dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts. “In a unique way, the high-level resources we will be providing to our students will help take interests many of them began pursuing at home during the pandemic to the next level. What we’re doing is giving them an opportunity to turn this passion into a career through training and experiences comparable to what’s happening in the business today.”
The university said 40% of the funding for the facility came from private donors, including a $3 million lead gift from the Suracks that was matched by the Edward D. and Ione Auer Foundation. The Suracks later donated another $3 million to help cover increased construction costs.
The university also received a $15 million allocation from the Indiana General Assembly as part of the state’s biennial budget.
Construction on the facility is slated to be complete ahead of the 2026 fall semester.