Seattle University said its new five-story, 111,000-square-foot science and tech building designed as the school’s new main entrance on 12th Ave will be completed in May and ready for next year’s fall quarter as it announced the building will be named to honor two longtime benefactors.

The Jim and Janet Sinegal Center for Science and Innovation will serve the university’s growing science, technology, engineering and mathematics student population as well as make a new home for campus radio station KXSU. The new building will also house the university’s Center for Community Engagement, which runs the Seattle University Youth Initiative.

The University Services building, a former Canada Dry bottling facility, was demolished to make way for the project.

The school says the Sinegals have been a longtime part of the campus community:

Jim Sinegal is the co-founder of Costco and has been involved with Seattle U for the past 27 years. He has served as chair of the board, honorary co-chair for The Campaign for the Uncommon Good, is a co-founder of the Seattle University Youth Initiative and a co-founder of the Costco Scholarship Fund, which benefits underrepresented students at Seattle University and the University of Washington. Together, Jim and Janet have served as Seattle U Gala chair and have supported the university’s College of Nursing, including the Clinical Performance Laboratory.

$96 million of the building’s $100 million budget has been raised to date, Seattle U says, including a $3 million gift from Microsoft.

The new center is part of continued growth for the Jesuit, private university.  By 2028, the school had planned to expand its boundaries by 2.4 acres with 2 million square feet added to the campus in new development. It’s not clear what impact the ongoing COVID-19 crisis will have on the school’s future plans.

In October, Seattle U announced Eduardo Peñalver, formerly the dean of Cornell Law School and a Puyallup native, will step in to replace Father Stephen Sundborg as president after the current academic year. Peñalver will become the university’s 22nd president, its first Latino president, and the first layperson to take the helm since Seattle University was founded in 1891, the school said.

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