Former Bend Mayor has made a commitment of $800,000 to Oregon State University–Cascades that will help the institution finalize its purchase of a building to house many of its graduate and research programs including its expanded master’s degrees in business administration, public health and fine arts in creative writing.
A Bend resident since 1970 and president of Cayuga Properties, Bruckner served as a Bend city commissioner in 1988 and was elected mayor in 1992. He is an alumnus of Cornell University and the University of Oregon.
“Almost everyone agrees that the number one priority for a strong community is an educated populace,” Bruckner said. “Bend has a fine public school system, a well-established and outstanding community college, and an emerging university that deserves and needs greater support.”
The building, located at 650 SW Columbia St. in Bend, has a full purchase price of $3.88 million. Bruckner’s gift will complement $2 million in lottery bonds approved in June by the Oregon State Legislature, with the additional funds being provided by OSU-Cascades.
“Allan Bruckner’s generous gift illustrates increasing confidence in the campus’ evolution into a comprehensive university. Not only is he contributing towards the building, he is setting the stage for continued philanthropic support from the Central Oregon community,” said Becky Johnson, vice president for OSU-Cascades.
The next step, OSU-Cascades administrators and Bruckner agree, is to continue the growth of the institution and develop support for degree programs, faculty endowments and student scholarships.
“We truly hope others will take note of this support and that it will be a catalyst for the community to concentrate efforts on nurturing development of OSU-Cascades,” Bruckner said.
It’s estimated that OSU-Cascades will save $225,000 annually by owning its own building, not needing to rent space form Central Oregon Community College where it current has offices and classroom space.
The purchase of the building was handled by Brian Fratzke, principal broker and founder of Fratzke Commercial of Bend. “This is excellent office space to provide OSU-Cascades with great expansion and growth opportunities to continue their success,” remarked Fratzke. “Between OSU-Cascades and Fratzke Commercial we’ve had over twenty people working on making this project come to fruition.”
Seller/Owner of the building was Dr. Charles Bonnett who was represented by Amy Cawrse | principal broker & asset manager for Olive Commercial Group in Bend.
