Plans were unveiled and unanimously approved for the development of the Hoffman Estates campus at Thursday’s Board of Regents meeting.

NIU’s education center will be a two-story building, containing 46,000 square feet.

The center will have a 250-seat lecture auditorium, five tiered classrooms that will hold between 30 and 56 students, six 30-seat classrooms and two seminar rooms.

There also will be an administrative wing and a library with computer rooms.

The facility will have 175 parking spaces for NIU students.

The education center will be linked by a pedestrian parkway to other parts of the Sears, Roebuck, and Co. project.

A raised stairtower with a skylight will be the centerpiece of the center.

“It’s been a highlight of my career to be a part of (the Hoffman Estates project),” said Eddie Williams, NIU vice president of Finance and Planning.

The new center could open in as soon as nine months, Williams said.

Also included in the Sears project are two acres for a fire station; two acres for a PACE bus stop, Illinois Bell and Commonwealth Edison; three multi-tenant buildings; 46,000 square feet for a health club; a 200-room hotel and 18,000 square feet for a day care center.

The financing for the entire project will be self-supporting and will not require additional state resources, NIU President John La Tourette said.

The Regents will lease the 3.9 acres donated by the village of Hoffman Estates to a trustee. The trustee in turn will sublease the land back to NIU so “the title of the land will belong to NIU,” Regents Chancellor Roderick Groves said.

La Tourette said the center will affect about 3,000 students. “We’ve gotten a great deal of support from people,” he said.