Grand Valley State University has completed what school officials are calling “the first step in expanding the school’s health campus in downtown Grand Rapids.”
Tuesday evening, Grand Valley State University officials including President Thomas J. Haas were on hand for the formal dedication of the school’s new Raleigh J. Finkelstein Hall. Located just off of the medical mile in downtown Grand Rapids, President Haas says the new building is all part of Grand Valley State University’s efforts to not only becoming a leader in training health professionals in West Michigan, but also maintaining the talent once the students graduate.
“We are going to be destination health,” Haas said. “With this particular space, this building, we are going to enable then the talent and keep it right here; this space will help us train those professionals.”
Having to raise nearly $40 million from private donors to complete the five-story, 84,000-square-foot building, Grand Valley State University officials named it the Raleigh J. Finkelstein Hall after the building’s lead donor. With all of the different charities to choose from, I asked Finkelstein what compelled him to give to Grand Valley State University’s expanding health campus.
“Well I lost a son when he was seven to cancer,” Finkelstein said. “And I lost another when he was 43 to heart disease. And my daughter suffers from muscular dystrophy. That was enough for me to do what I did.”
According to the university, the Raleigh J. Finkelstein Hall includes 16 teaching labs and 90 faculty and staff offices to support Grand Valley State University’s growing health sciences programs.
