University of Oregon finalizes purchase of former Concordia campus in NE Portland

The College of Oregon has finalized its $60.35 million buy of the previous Concordia College campus in Northeast Portland and plans to maneuver in as quickly as fall 2023.

The centerpiece of the 19-acre campus, which the college is now calling UO Portland, might be a youngsters’s behavioral well being program funded with a $425 million donation from Connie and Steve Ballmer. Connie Ballmer is a UO graduate and former trustee, and Steve Ballmer is the previous chief govt of Microsoft.

However the college says it is going to additionally transfer all the packages at present housed in its White Stag constructing in Portland’s Outdated City. That features numerous tutorial packages and analysis facilities centered on journalism, promoting, structure, sports activities product design and regulation.

It’s additionally contemplating relocating its Portland grasp of enterprise administration program, which is housed in leased area in Outdated City.

It’s not clear what may occur to the White Stag property, which is owned by the College of Oregon Basis, the nonprofit that oversees endowments and different main items to the varsity. UO spokesperson Kay Jarvis mentioned a piece group was discussing the property’s future.

Concordia College closed all of the sudden in early 2020 when its mum or dad church, the St. Louis-based Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, lower off funding over the Portland campus’ comparatively accepting stance towards LGBTQ college students.

The college already confronted a giant funds deficit due to a cope with an outdoor firm, HotChalk, to ramp up its on-line enrollment. As an alternative of a money-maker, the technique grew to become a drain on the varsity’s income.

After Concordia closed, and offered with the Ballmers’ hundreds of thousands, the UO sprang on the likelihood to purchase a ready-built campus in a quiet nook of Portland. It made public its plans to purchase the location at the same time as issues remained, together with unresolved authorized claims on the land from HotChalk and the Missouri Synod.

Jarvis mentioned these claims had been resolved to the college’s satisfaction.

“The college has authorized protections in place to guard its funding on this property,” Jarvis wrote in an e mail.

The Ballmer Institute goals to create a partnership between with native faculties to deal with what the Ballmers and the UO described as a rising psychological well being disaster amongst Oregon’s youngsters, with its epicenter in Portland.

The middle will supply bachelor’s levels and certificates to mid-career college students. It expects to graduate greater than 200 behavioral well being practitioners a yr as soon as it’s up and operating.

— Elliot Njus; enjus@oregonian.com; @enjus