On Wednesday, Mayor Steve Williams, Marshall President Jerome Gilbert, Marshall President-elect Brad Smith and Marshall University faculty and other community members crowded into a tent on the block of 1400 4th Ave for the new school of business’ groundbreaking ceremony.

The Lewis College of Business’ Brad D. Smith Center for Business and Innovation is slated to finish construction in the Spring of 2024.

“We are taking another step closer to having a brand new, state of the art building; the Brad D. Smith center for business and innovation right here on this very spot,” Gilbert said during the event’s welcoming speech.

Speakers at the event discussed the five-year history of this project, having been a dream of President Gilbert’s since the early months of his presidency.

Gilbert shared that the project was not truly on its feet until the school received a $25 million donation from Brad and Alys Smith in November 2018. Because of the donation, the new school of business has been named after Brad Smith.

“If my name is ever going to be associated with anything, I would want it to be associated with this building; because this is the house that we built.” Smith said.