One year later: How JP Conte's $25 million gift anchored Colgate's new west campus

A year after JP Conte committed $25 million to the building that anchors Colgate's new West Campus, the project has moved from announcement to active construction along Broad Street.

The gift, announced in May 2025, names the Social Center at the heart of what Colgate's called the “most significant campus expansion in its history,” according to the university's Third Century campaign release. One year on, the social building is the visible centerpiece of a $105 million alumni investment that's reshaping how students live and interact at Colgate.

The Gift That Anchored a $105 Million Campus Plan

JP Conte's $25 million gift sits inside a broader funding push that Colgate organized around its Campaign for the Third Century, which set a $1 billion goal in 2022. The university calls it the largest fundraising effort by a liberal arts institution of Colgate's size. The May 2025 announcement that brought the West Campus initiative to $105 million also included the largest single gift in Colgate history: $50 million from Peter Kellner ’65, P’87, GP’16,’19. Three additional $10 million leadership gifts came from Becky Hurley ’81 and Christopher Hurley ’81, P’12,’12; Robert Fox ’59, GP’23,’25; and Stephen Sprague ’72. Fox House at 70 Broad Street takes its name from one of those gifts, the campaign announcement confirms.

The anchor building, formally the Social Center, is the gathering structure that will be named after Conte. Robert A.M. Stern Architects, the New York firm that completed Bernstein Hall on Colgate's campus in fall 2024, was selected to design the West Campus buildings. Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, the Brooklyn studio that completed Peter's Glen for Colgate, was retained for site design. Both firms know the campus well.

Colgate President Brian W. Casey framed the project's stakes when the gifts were announced: “Colgate intends to offer the strongest residential liberal arts education in America, and the We[s]t Campus initiative is key to achieving that vision.”

Why JP Conte Picked the Social Center

The path from a Brooklyn and New Jersey childhood to a $25 million building at Colgate is worth understanding because it informs why the donor chose to fund this particular asset rather than an endowed chair or a scholarship pool. JP Conte is a 1985 Colgate graduate and the founder and Managing Partner of Lupine Crest Capital, his family office that he established to deploy capital across private equity, real estate, and venture investments. His father, who fled war-torn France, and his mother, who emigrated from Cuba, settled in Brooklyn and later New Jersey. The family lived in modest circumstances. Conte has described that upbringing as one of big dreams and strong family support.

His own framing of the gift is the clearest explanation of why it landed where it did. “My Colgate experience helped me achieve my personal and professional dreams, as both a first-generation student and the son of immigrants, by providing me with an education that continues to serve me today,” Conte said in a statement issued through the Third Century campaign. “The new Conte House will be a vital gathering place for students of all backgrounds, and supporting future generations in this way is nothing short of an honor for me and my family.”

That biography also helps explain the Conte First Generation Fund, an initiative he established to support students at several universities. Designating a building specifically for student life, rather than an academic structure or endowed faculty line, is a recognizable extension of that priority. The Social Center is positioned as the kind of common space that all students can benefit from, including first-generation students. It's a place to gather, study, host visiting alumni, and build the network capital. Conte's board service across the Colgate trustees, the UCSF Foundation, and the Hoover Institution sits inside the same theme. Each affiliation gives him a direct line into how American universities decide what they will fund and where their physical campuses will grow. The J-P Conte Family Foundation, founded in 2017, is the vehicle that has channeled much of that work, with educational philanthropy running alongside support for medical research and conservation programs.

Colgate's broader campaign frames the move similarly. The Lower Campus, as described in Lifestyles Magazine's contemporaneous reporting, is meant to enhance the residential and social experience for juniors and seniors and to encourage both community and independence as students prepare for life after graduation. Lower Campus is engineered to give juniors and seniors a residential and social anchor that connects them to first-year housing and academic buildings up the hill.

What Comes Next on Broad Street

A year into the project, Broad Street looks like a construction site. North House and South House, two large residences, will attach to the Social Center. Two smaller studies nearby will provide space for seminars and group projects. A common pathway called The Walk will run through West Campus. The Park, a green anchor on an extension of Taylor Lake, closes out the design. Work's already begun at 66 Broad Street, with renovations continuing at 70 Broad Street and across Greek and theme houses as part of the same building program.

Once construction finishes, juniors and seniors will move into West Campus theme houses, fraternities, sororities, apartments, and townhouses. Every senior will have the option of a single room. Approximately half of each junior class will too, according to the Third Century announcement. That is the practical version of what Vice President and Dean of the College Paul McLoughlin described as the work of “build[ing] community” and “build[ing] the skills to live independently and to be good citizens after they graduate.”

For JP Conte, the Colgate project may end up among the most concentrated, visible expressions of his philanthropic intent. A single structure. A single street. A place instrumental to his own trajectory. The $25 million gift from JP Conte set the architectural keystone. Casey has said the Third Century campaign will “set the trajectory of Colgate for decades to come.”