Press Release: NMU Funding Recipients Will Create Presentation and Planning Tools for Ore Dock BotEco Center

​MARQUETTE, MICHIGAN – October 24, 2018 – An interdisciplinary team of faculty and students from Northern Michigan University (NMU) have been awarded funding for a proposal to collaboratively create a cohesive set of presentation and planning tools to be used by stakeholders of the Ore Dock BotEco Center.

Professors Peter Pless (School of Art and Design), Michael Crum (College of Business), and Hugo Eyzaguirre (Department of Economics), along with a team of university students, were awarded money from the 2018 PRIME fund competition. This internal funding mechanism from NMU, called the Progressive Research and Innovative Mutual Exploration (PRIME) fund, is awarded annually to interdisciplinary research projects that seek to create quantifiable deliverables with impactful outcomes.
 
This winning project will allow NMU faculty and students in the 3 departments to create a cohesive set of presentation and planning tools that will help Ore Dock BotEco Center (BotEco) to attract potential donors, with the ultimate goal of benefiting the Marquette area community, including NMU. With help from Professors Pless, Crum, and Eyzaguirre, students will gather necessary information and create a physical model, a business plan, and an economic impact analysis for BotEco. When the tools have been completed, the NMU chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America will assist the PRIME project participants in preparing a presentation for the Marquette City Commission. 
 
BotEco is an endeavor which is repurposing an iconic decommissioned industrial structure in downtown Marquette to create a world-class community venue, waterfront, and greenspace. Presentation tools are needed to inform and inspire potential funders of BotEco. This PRIME project will give students and faculty a unique opportunity to be involved in this vision by creating accurate, detailed tools which will be critical for BotEco’s success in fundraising for the venture.

Friends of Ore Dock BotEco Center  
Friends of Ore Dock BotEco Center is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to repurposing a historic retired industrial site in Marquette, Michigan by transforming it into a community center. Our goal is to create a special place extending onto Lake Superior that achieves a sustainable balance of educational, recreational, and commercial uses. This ambitious project will offer ecological education facilities, historical preservation and education, year-round indoor botanical gardens, and community spaces for the benefit of the Marquette community, the State of Michigan, and the Great Lakes region as a whole. Contact us at oredockboteco.org.