A chain-link fence surrounds the Hub with signs attached that say “No Trespassing.” Some of the doors are closed with more signs advising hardhats and authorized personnel only. Out of an open door comes the sound of metal against metal.

The Hub is closed for renovations as part of an overall ISU Dining renovation.

“It’s completely gutted, all the walls have been torn down, the floor ripped up, and the ceiling torn down,” said Nancy Levandowski, director of ISU Dining.

The renovated Hub is going to have 108 seats at booths and tables, a grill, a sub sandwich area, and a branded coffee concept, which is yet to be decided upon. The Hub was supposed to have been renovated over a year ago.

“The first time we went out to bid, nobody bid on it,” Levandowski said. “It came in way over budget so we had to go back and do some value engineering.”

The Hub should open up sometime in the spring semester, Levandowski said. The renovations on the Hub are currently priced at an estimated $1.3 million. It was recently requested to raise the number of seats in the facility from 48 to 108, which might raise the budget up to $1.8 million.

The students who previously went to the Hub for food are now being serviced by a cart in Beardshear underneath the stairs. This cart will remain until the Hub is finished. There are also soda machines outside the fence around the Hub.

Another cart, called the Union Drive Marketplace Express, has been located outside the Union Drive Community Center.

Friday is the last day the cart will run. The cart was part of the effort to feed more students than the UDM could handle at the time.

“The line to get inside the UDM ran around the stairwell and down the stairs. We took about 200 to 300 people a day over to the cart to eat,” Levandowski said.

Levandowski said she is going to use the cart in different parts of campus to test traffic for locations for a new facility.

ISU Dining also will renovate several other facilities. The Onion’s convenience store in the Memorial Union will combine with the MU Caf‚ and be located outside the bookstore. It is planned to sell smoothies, convenience store items and coffee at a coffee bar.

ISU Dining has opened Cys & Fries, a new burger place in the union.

Levandowski said they are planning on renovating two of the popular dining centers in the coming years: Oak-Elm and Maple-Willow-Larch is scheduled to close in 2008 and reopen in 2009. As soon as it opens, Oak-Elm is scheduled to close and planned to reopen in 2010.

Levandowski compared the two dining center’s proposed renovations to the Union Drive Marketplace and Memorial Union. The MWL dining center will be like the UDM with a retail feel with different stations. The Oak-Elm dining center will be more like the Memorial Union’s food court because of what Levandowski called the community atmosphere.

Some of the suggestions for the Oak-Elm dining center include a grill, chef table, coffee place, place for scoop ice cream and bakery.

“It’s going to be awesome. I’m very excited about it,” Levandowski said. “It’s not often you get to renovate a dining facility because it is so expensive to do so. It’s just very exciting to bring what we can to the students.”

There are other ideas for the dining centers, such as the possibility of Maple-Willow-Larch being opened on Sunday night for dinner.

“We just need to kind of compare and figure out what we really need to do to best serve our customers. People can always e-mail me and give me their feedback,” Levandowski said.

In 2005, a bid process was started for providing food on campus. The decision to review food services was made by the Board of Regents. ISU Dining bid against Aramark, Sodexo and Chartwells, said Arlo Meyer, assistant vice president for business services. ISU Dining won the bid, in part because of their financial proposal. They also proposed several changes to the facilities as part of their bid. The project is being funded by ISU Dining operations and by the university, Meyer said.

“Through the evaluation process the committee determined that ISU Dining had submitted the best proposal and would be able to meet the goal of providing ISU’s students, faculty and staff with excellent service and high-quality foods,” Meyer said.