At a special meeting on Feb. 6, the Miami University Board of Trustees voted to purchase Vora Technology Park located just north of Miami’s Hamilton campus for $11.2 million.

Alecia Lipton, associate director of media relations at Miami, said the 55-acre property, which has a 300,000 square foot building, will also be used for educational purposes by Miami and Butler Tech. 

Butler Tech has secured $8 million in federal ARPA funds from the Butler County Board of Commissioners to sign a lease with Miami to co-locate at Vora Technology Park, with the goal of having high school students, adult education students, Miami students, and business partners.   

The city of Hamilton will contribute $2.5 million for what is hoped will become an advanced manufacturing hub.

According to its website, Vora Technology Park was built in 2005. 

AJ Huff, public relations specialist at Butler Tech, said that it is one of the largest career technical schools in Ohio and offers high school and adult education students a wide range of career training programs. 

“This project is specifically geared toward advanced manufacturing,” Huff said. “For us, that’s going to include programs such as IT, welding, precision machining, engineering, and mechatronics.”

Inside Vora Technology Center, Miami and Butler Tech will together occupy 70,000 square feet of the building.

Huff said Butler Tech has a total of 15,000 students across all programs, and they expect to serve an additional 200 students at this new facility.

Joshua Smith, city manager for the city of Hamilton, said that the purchase of the property by Miami “aligns with Miami’s commitment to fostering economic growth in the region.” 

“Leveraging Miami University’s esteemed status as an entrepreneurial public Ivy institution alongside Butler Tech’s progressive, first-in-class approach to innovation, this initiative promises to bridge the gap between education and employment.”