Shop Talk: Archdiocese Land for Cardinal Stritch U., an Alliance in Oregon, and More

Keeping it in the family: Cardinal Stritch University will buy a 415,000-square-foot building and 44 acres of land owned by the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. No sale price was released. Finances at the archdiocese have been stretched; it has needed to sell the property to pay off a $4.6-million loan acquired to its $8.25-million share of a sexual-abuse settlement, the paper reported. Cardinal Stritch has had aspirations for growth; it wants to increase the number of traditional-age students on its rolls, and Helen C. Sobehart, the university president, said the purchase would help accomplish that. “The property being sold includes a very small part of Seminary Woods, but the intent of the archdiocese is to see that this parcel and the rest of the woods remain protected,” wrote the reporter, Tom Heinen. “The 70-acre woods with its pristine forest and wildflowers is one of the last and least-spoiled remnants of the original landscape that covered most of Milwaukee County.” Church officials were glad that the land went to a Catholic institution.

Alliance of the cash strapped: The Oregonian reports that the Oregon Health & Science University will form partnerships with other Oregon universities to raise $250-million for a 300,000-square-foot life sciences building. Other institutions that may be part of the plan include Portland State University, Oregon State University, and the Oregon Institute of Technology. “The proposal is a milestone for collaboration among institutions in the Oregon University System, which often must squabble over limited state funds and see their projects diluted as money is parceled out over many campuses,” writes Ted Sickinger. “The plan would also provide a financially strapped OHSU with a path forward to increase the capacity of its medical school.”

And more: Heritage University has a new, 35,000-square-foot teaching-and-research complex, which will allow the university to grow a little. The University of the Pacific’s new $38.5-million student center will open in the fall; students insisted that the building should be green. Hawaii Pacific University announced that it would spend $70-million to expand its Hawaii Loa campus over the next five years.