FDL City Council Approves Investment In Downtown Marian Project

Marian University will be getting help from the City of Fond du Lac in moving its nursing school to the former A.C. Nielsen Building on South Main Street. The City Council Wednesday night approved committing up to $255,000 in the City’s general fund economic development budget to cover a funding gap for the project. Arnold Henning is the Vice President of Marian’s Office of Business and Finance. He says currently they have 281 students plus 39 faculty members, but anticipate the number of nursing students who would be using the building to grow to 500. He says leasing the other two-thirds of the building to Agnesian for their Information Technology needs and Nielsen would help pay for the renovations to the building. The City is expected to pick up an additional $40,000 in parking permit fees each year from use of the building. City Manager Joe Moore says the City’s investment in a project with an overall budget of nearly $5 million seems reasonable.