Nearly 2,000 University of Massachusetts Dartmouth students have a place to call their own. The university celebrated the expansion of the Charlton College of Business with a ribbon cutting ceremony on October 20.

The $15 million, 22,000 square-foot learning pavilion includes meeting spaces, a business innovation center, a 165-seat auditorium, and the first set of new classrooms in nearly a decade, according to a university press release.

“It’s a fantastic building,” said interim Chancellor Peyton Helm. “It’s something we’ve needed so so badly, and it will serve this generation of students and future generations of students splendidly.”

In 1997, Earle Perry “Chuck” Charlton II — grandson of department store businessman E.P. Charlton — and Charlton Trust donated $3 million for the construction of the Charlton College of Business building. It opened in 2004 and includes offices for deans, professors, and staff.

However, Charlton soon realized that the 1,935 business students needed a central location, and in 2008 pledged $3 million to build an expansion, as long as the university raised an additional $1.5 million to fund it, said Charlton College of Business Dean Angappa Gunasekaran.

“He saw the students really needing a home so faculty, staff, and students could be under the same roof,” Gunasekaran said, adding that previously business classes had been spread out across multiple buildings. “The space will promote an equal system bringing innovation and entrepreneurship to the campus and the South Coast of Massachusetts.”

The extra funding would take six years to realize, but in 2014 the university met the challenge. By June 2015 construction officially began, and wrapped up on time and within budget for the start of classes in September 2016.

Gunasekaran said he already has big plans for the expansion. He plans to build a stock market trading room complete with Bloomberg terminals, and use the facility to host a Startup Weekend, an event which gives teams of entrepreneurs 54 hours to develop and market a new product. He added that more space means the university can increase business enrollment as well.