DETROIT – A $40 million Wayne State University business school named after Little Ceasar Pizza co-founder Mike Ilitch will be built near the new Red Wings arena, the Detroit News reported Wednesday. The official announcement is expected Friday.

A source familiar with the plan told the Detroit News the new Mike Ilitch School of Business will be built at the southwest corner of Woodward and Temple. The Ilitches intend to donate the land and $35 million to build the school plus a $5 million endowment.

The school will rise one block north of the state-of-the-art arena currently under construction. The 18,000-seat multipurpose venue, being built between Woodward and Cass, is slated to open in 2017.

The business school, which may take up an entire block, will be 120,000 square feet. It’s just one in an expected string of major developments the Ilitch family may announce over the next year as it pursues its goal of creating a densely populated, stable area that could be bigger than the current downtown. Big sections of the area now are blighted or vacant.

The Ilitches have committed to invest at least another $200 million for other developments in the district beyond the arena. The entire project has an estimated economic benefit of $1.8 billion, officials said.

A spokesman for the Ilitch companies declined to comment late Tuesday. Wayne State spokesman Matt Lockwood said he couldn’t confirm the deal, but added the university was planning a special event on Friday.

The Ilitches and a holding firm they have used to buy other properties are gobbling up parking lots and buildings around the Masonic Temple, which is just two blocks from the arena. Since last year, millions of dollars have been paid for surface lots, a warehouse and an empty former church on and around Temple.