Kettering University breaks ground on $1.5 million Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity house
By Beata Mostafavi | Flint Journal
February 19, 2010, 4:35PM
Sarah A. Miller/The Flint JournalSigma Alpha Epsilon housing representative Sam Hoff, fraternity A section president Shaun Yuchasz, Mayor Dayne Walling, Kettering provost Michael Harris, trustee Gary Cowger and SAE B section president Shane Skop break the ground Friday afternoon in Flint for the new SAE house located at 1509 University Avenue, two blocks east of Kettering University. The house is set to be completed in October.
FLINT, Michigan — A $1.5 million fraternity house will soon become one of the newest buildings to grace University Avenue since its symbolic name change.
The two-story, 7,200-square-feet Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity at Kettering University broke ground Thursday just a couple of blocks east of campus where it will be the college’s closest Greek home.
And city boosters say the brand new, 31-student facility is another symbol of what’s been dubbed the “college corridor” connecting Kettering with the University of Michigan-Flint and Mott Community College.
“The students of tomorrow are really looking for a campus type of setting and this building enhances that,” said Sam Hoff, a 1990 Kettering alum and president of the Michigan Epsilon Housing Corporation who led efforts to build the new house. “(Flint) is coming back.”
The new house at 1509 University Avenue will be built on a 1.27 acre corner lot Kettering donated off Mathewson Street.
It is scheduled to open this October.
Hoff, 43, of Clarkston, said the SAE house was in danger of closing when membership numbers whittled down from about 40 to 50 brothers at a time to about a dozen nearly five years ago.
So a group of alumni decided to help save it by working with partners and raising private money.
“It’s going to tie right in with the effort to revitalize the community,” said freshman SAE brother Kyle Downing, 18, who will move in to the new house next year.
Fraternity members used the phoenix analogy to describe the new house and what it means for the chapter’s re-birth.
Mayor Dayne Walling said the building is also a symbol of efforts to move Flint out of its manufacturing past into its future as a college town.
Innovation and college students will play key roles in the transformation, he said.
“This is the phoenix site for the community,” he said of the corridor.
The SAE fraternity sold its current 45-year-old house at 3206 W. Beecher Street to McClaren Regional Medical Center.
Chapter members hope the brand new house, which features a 3,600 square foot walk out basement, commercial-grade kitchen for student dining and state-of-the-art security system, serves as a significant recruiting tool.
For the first time the chapter will also have a live-in house mom.
Rendering of a new $1.5 million Kettering University fraternity house.
“This is a pivotal growth for our chapter,” said Shaun Yuchasz, president of the fraternity during Kettering’s A-section, adding of its location “It brings everyone closer.”
Roughly 750 Kettering students are a part of Greek life, comprising nearly 40 percent of campus.
Kettering has 13 fraternities and six sororities but only 11 of the groups have houses. The new house will be the seventh one to be within a mile of the university.
“We see Greek life as an integral part of our university’s community,” said Michael Harris, Kettering’s provost and vice president for academic affairs.
“This move will enhance a sense of community at our university for all of our students.”
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