The Ilitch family of Detroit plans to donate land and cash totaling $40 million to Wayne State University, the Detroit Free Press reports.

The gift from the family, whose holdings include Little Caesars, the Detroit Red Wings, the Detroit Tigers, and Olympia Entertainment, will fund a new downtown facility for the university's business school on property owned by the family, with $35 million earmarked for construction costs and $5 million for an endowment, a source familiar with the plans said. In recognition of the largest single gift in Wayne State's 147-year history, the business school will be renamed the Mike Ilitch School of Business. Starting with one pizza shop in 1959, Mike and Marian Ilitch built the Little Caesars chain into one of the nation's biggest pizza chains, then branched out into sports and entertainment.

The new building will be located near the site of a $650 million redevelopment project on the northern edge of downtown Detroit that includes the Red Wings' new arena and an entertainment district. Currently located on the university's main Midtown campus, the business school has twenty-four hundred undergraduate and eight hundred and fifty graduate students; the new school could bring an estimated three thousand students, faculty, and staff into the heart of downtown, those briefed on the plans told the Free Press. It also could help bridge two rebounding neighborhoods — downtown and Midtown — soon to be linked via the new M-1 light-rail line.

While no official announcement has been made, Ilitch Holdings spokesperson Doug Kuiper told the Free Press back in January that "as longtime neighbors and partners in Detroit's revitalization, we're excited to be discussing new opportunities to collaborate with Wayne State in the District Detroit."