University of Saint Francis buys Chamber building

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) - The University of Saint Francis is expanding its downtown presence with the purchase of the Fort Wayne Chamber of Commerce building at 826 Ewing Street. USF plans to house the Keith Busse School of Business and Entrepreneurial Leadership in the 1928 building. The sale is expected to close in the fall.

The building has been up for sale since 2010. The chamber is expected to stay in the building until spring 2013 while it a search for new office space in the downtown area is conducted.

The future business school location will be close to USF's Performing Arts Center at 431 W. Berry Street. USF bought the former Scottish Rite Center in January. The performance hall also houses the Media Entrepreneurship Training in the Arts (META) program.

“Locating the school of business near the USF Performing Arts Center supports the META program’s downtown momentum,” said Sister M. Elise Kriss, university president. “Since META intersects with business courses, locating the study centers near one another creates convenience for our students while partnering with the city to draw visitors to an enhanced downtown. The move also provides more space for the business school’s other programs and opens up main campus space for the School of Arts and Sciences.”

The Greater Fort Wayne Chamber of Commerce is a non-profit organization with a membership of 1,700 northeast Indiana businesses. It supports economic growth through member business resources and facilitating strategic connections across business, education and government.

The University of Saint Francis, founded in 1890 as a comprehensive university in the Catholic Franciscan tradition, offers more than 60 undergraduate and 14 graduate programs in five schools: The School of Health Sciences, School of Arts and Sciences, Keith Busse School of Business and Entrepreneurial Leadership, School of Professional Studies and School of Creative Arts. It enrolls more than 2,300 students from a broad geographic region. The university has a regional campus in Crown Point, Ind.