“It’s a great opportunity for us to be working with the pharmacy program at Ferris State University and to develop some joint learning experiences for all of our students,” said Marsha Rappley, dean of MSU’s College of Human Medicine.

MSU will fund and complete the construction on the 23,316-square-foot seventh floor according to Ferris’ specifications. During the first five years of the lease, Ferris will pay back MSU for the construction costs.

MSU officials would not comment on the cost of the construction until Ferris’s Board of Trustees approves the lease.

Provost Kim Wilcox said design plans for the facility anticipated the amount of space MSU would need during the next 20 years. However, MSU won’t use the top floor of the center immediately, and thus was able to lease the space to Ferris.

“The building was built for the long-term use of the university but at the present time there is space we don’t need to occupy,” Wilcox said. “This is a chance to foster an important collaboration with one of our sister institutions.”

Ferris will pay a base rent of $18 per square foot with a 3 percent annual increase, as well as its share of maintenance, insurance and utilities. For the first year of the lease, Ferris will pay about $420,000 in base rent, which doesn’t include operation costs or build-out payback.

MSU Trustee Donald Nugent said the lease made sense, not only academically, but fiscally.

“I just think it makes very good economic sense to do that,” Nugent said. “It saves money for everybody. It helps Ferris. It helps them strengthen their program and it really strengthens the entire Grand Rapids program which helps us a great deal.”

Just as MSU’s Board of Trustees had to approve issuing the lease, Ferris’ board must accept the lease agreement.

Karen Obermier, secretary to the Board of Trustees at Ferris, said the board will have a special meeting Friday to approve the lease.

“That’s the only item we’re addressing at that meeting because it needed to be approved,” she said.

Marc Sheehan, Ferris’ spokesman, said the opportunity to collaborate with MSU was too good to pass on.

“Just being in physical proximity is really going to create opportunities to network at all sorts of levels, between students and faculty people from different institutions,” he said. “This is another opportunity for both Ferris and Michigan State to be able to work together and build on each other’s strengths.”