Michigan State University will soon have an even bigger presence in West Michigan.
The MSU Grand Rapids Research Center is opening on Wednesday after two years of construction and more than a decade of planning.
MSU already has its College of Human Medicine’s Secchia Center medical education building in the city.
The university will use the $88 million facility to do scientific research. It was funded mostly with private money.
The six-story building will create 130 new jobs in West Michigan, and it will support up to 260 members of MSU's medical research team.
Around 25 principle investigators and their teams, approximately 160 researchers total, will move in by early November.
The center will be located along Grand Rapids' so-called Medical Mile, along with Spectrum Health and the Helen DeVos Children's Hospital.