Staff Reports
Florida State University says it is beginning renovations on the downtown building that will be the new home of schools named after the late car dealer and philanthropist Jim Moran.
The site, donated by lobbyist Brian Ballard and his wife Kathryn, will host the College of Business’s Jim Moran Institute for Global Entrepreneurship and the university’s new interdisciplinary Jim Moran School of Entrepreneurship. Ballard’s own new home for his lobbying firm is now being built next door.
The renovation will transform approximately 20,000 square feet of space in the old Guaranty Bank building at 111 South Monroe St. The building is expected to open in November 2017.
“One floor of the facility will become the statewide headquarters for the Jim Moran Institute and the location for all of its Tallahassee programs,” the school said in a press release.
“Another floor will include classroom, incubator and office space for the Jim Moran School of Entrepreneurship students, faculty and staff. The Jim Moran Institute and the Jim Moran School will share space to accommodate events, presentations, receptions, meetings, collaborative projects and administrative functions.”
Moran, who moved to Florida in 1966, died in 2007 at the age of 88. His fortune came through car dealerships, including becoming the largest distributor of Toyota vehicles in the country. At his death, Forbes magazine listed his net worth at $2.4 billion.
Moran first gave nearly $2 million to FSU in 1995 toward what is now The Jim Moran Institute for Global Entrepreneurship.
