FARGO — Gate City Bank officials have developed a new low-interest finance agreement with North Dakota State University that will save the university $2.5 million in construction costs on the Aldevron Tower, a six-story, $28 million privately funded addition to Sudro Hall.
The announcement was made at a press conference Wednesday, Sept. 4, at Gate City Bank's downtown branch.
NDSU President Dean Bresciani called Gate City Bank an "early adopter" of NDSU and thanked the institution for its continued support.
"We talk about the Bison family, but we’re very fortunate to be part of a broader family called the Fargo-Moorhead community," Bresciani said. "I’ve been at nine universities, but I’ve never been someplace where the community and the university have a stronger relationship. ... One of the most important in terms of that relationship has been Gate City Bank. They were one of the early adopters of NDSU, if you will."
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He pointed to high-profile projects such as the Gate City Bank Field at the Fargodome to lesser-known projects like Gate City Bank classrooms at Barry Hall.
"And you can't go to a football game and not think, 'Hmm, who did that field?'" he joked. "Very subtle."
He called Gate City's latest commitment an "investment" rather than a "gift."
"They understand the value" of investing in NDSU and the greater community, Bresciani said.
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Steve Swiontek, executive chair for Gate City Bank and chairman of the board, challenged his team to come up with a unique funding formula for NDSU.
Bresciani said the agreed-upon interest rate is unheard of.
"Rather than making us finance through normal mechanisms, they offered us an extraordinarily low interest rate to finance the cost to run the construction period and until those gifts are received," he said. "When I say extraordinarily low, I've never heard of this. It's going to save us $2.5 million on the cost of the project. That's $2.5 million that can be invested back into the project, particularly for some research opportunities that will be made possible by the building."
Gate City Bank's investment will bring all of NDSU's College of Health Professions academic programs — pharmacy, nursing, allied sciences and public health — together. It will provide space to accommodate five new research faculty, office space for professional advisers in the college, the expansion of Sudro Hall's animal research facility and a new common core equipment room and study and office space for graduate students.
NDSU received permission from the State Board of Education to expand Sudro Hall and its nursing program in response to the region's shortage of health care workers in 2018. The project will be complete in December, with students and faculty moving in just in time for the spring semester.
