University leaders, the Kenan-Flagler Business School community and UNC dignitaries gathered Friday for a celebration of the nearly complete Steven D. Bell Hall, the first major on-campus expansion of the business school.
Hundreds gathered in the atrium or along the floors looking down into the space for a ribbon-cutting ceremony and speeches from UNC figures, honoring the achievement of the construction and potential the new academic hall provides.
“It’s about growth, innovation, opportunity and community,” UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School Dean Mary Margaret Frank said to help begin Friday’s event. “It is a step forward in fulfilling our vision — we’re going to lead the way. Lead the way how? By empowering businesses to tackle evolving global challenges and Steven D. Bell Hall stands as a bold response to the increasing demand for a Carolina business education.”
Namesake donor Steve Bell holds the scissors to cut the grand opening ribbon alongside UNC Chancellor Lee Roberts (to Bell’s left), Dean Mary Margaret Frank (second from Bell’s right) and other Kenan-Flagler community members on Friday, Nov. 7. (Photo by Brighton McConnell/Chapel Hill Media Group.)
UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School Dean Mary Margaret Frank addresses the gathered crowd at Friday’s event. (Photo by Brighton McConnell/Chapel Hill Media Group.)
The impetus of Bell Hall was for UNC Kenan-Flagler to have a state-of-the-art facility while enabling the high-demand business school to admit 50% more students to its undergraduate business program. It is already helping, as the business school welcomed “the largest group of students ever” of roughly 900, according to Associate Dean of the Undergraduate Business Program Shimul Melwani.
“It means more syllabi, more emails, more employers, more student clubs, and so much more coffee — but also more perspectives, more visions, and more dreams,” Melwani said. “More opportunities to shape leaders who will shape this state. And it all comes together [here]. Made possible through the partnership through the state of North Carolina and our generous donors, Bell Hall reflects a shared commitment to empowering our future leaders.”
“Thank you very much indeed to the donors and supporters who made this possible,” added UNC Chancellor Lee Roberts. “Godspeed to the generations of students, faculty and staff who are going to learn and work and grow and thrive in this magnificent building — and welcome to a new chapter of excellence for Kenan-Flagler.”
The expansion project required significant public and private investment, with the North Carolina General Assembly allocating $105 million for Bell Hall and roughly $90 million raised by private donations — including $26 million from Steven and Jackie Bell, for whom the building is named after. The university broke ground on the project in Sep. 2022 and held a “topping off” ceremony in April 2024 to celebrate the completion of Bell Hall’s steel beam structure.
Despite Friday’s celebration titled as the building’s “grand opening,” some construction is still being completed. While many of its classrooms and main areas are complete, others are still unfinished and significant landscaping work is continuing outside. A spokesperson for UNC Kenan-Flagler confirmed plans for staff to move into Bell Hall in December before the school begins offering classes and is open to the public in early 2026 for the spring semester.
Once open for business, though, Bell Hall will boast more than 54,000 square footage of instructional, meeting and event space, including 16 “flexible” classrooms equipped for hybrid and online teaching. The new facility also has several areas featuring artwork, fulfilling the vision described by former UNC Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz of making Bell Hall like “Ackland [Art Museum] South.” Frank said blending business and art is one of her dreams and described it as a key component to help foster creativity in the students who use Bell Hall — something increasingly important, she said, in a world driven by artificial intelligence.
Another key element of the building’s design: helping the business school be more visible and connected to the rest of UNC’s campus. While McColl Building has been tucked up off of Kenan Drive, Bell Hall’s main entrance is off William Blythe Drive and constructed in a way to draw in more visitors than Kenan-Flagler’s prior location. In addition to its entryway into a foyer, the building features a curved walkway out the outside overlooking a future garden and outdoor seating area and leading students to either Bell or McColl’s entrance.
Melwani told Chapelboro that’s an aspect of Bell Hall she is most excited about, knowing that it will help both her students and other UNC students alike be able to share space.
“I think sometimes our old building was seen as a little bit set apart, and students who weren’t business students or weren’t considering business would never make their way there,” she said. “Having this building that flows better and is more connected to campus, our hope is that we’ll see more students make their way here. We do want students from other programs in here studying, using our spaces — and from that maybe one, they’ll think about applying here…but also maybe collaborating with our business students in ways we’ve never seen before.
“For me, that’s a piece of this that I don’t think we don’t talk enough about: we’re just more integrated with campus than we’ve ever been,” Melwani concluded.
Not only does the addition of Bell Hall create opportunities for UNC students and faculty, but it provides the university space to hold instruction while updating Kenan-Flagler’s existing McColl Building in the future — an undated, but stated, effort to renovate the academic hall built in 1997.
Featured photo by Brighton McConnell/Chapel Hill Media Group.
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