CONTACT:
UW-Oshkosh Vice Chancellor Tom Sonnleitner, (920) 424-3030
Doug Pearson, Chamco, Inc., (920) 232-9786
OSHKOSH – In a move to help the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh advance plans for a new academic building, the city’s industrial development corporation will facilitate the purchase of the former Cub Foods store at 650 Witzel Ave.
It is the first time that Chamco, Inc., has facilitated a purchase for the local state university campus.
“This is an historic occasion, and it comes at a crucial time,” said UW-Oshkosh Chancellor Richard H. Wells. “Chamco’s decision to assist us with this purchase means we will not have to delay efforts to get construction of a critically needed academic building underway by 2007.”
The acquisition of the vacant Cub Foods store will allow UW-Oshkosh to move its Facility Management Center, 845 High Ave., to make room for the new academic building.
“Our assistance with this project is a natural,” said Doug Pearson, Chamco’s executive director. “The university is the city’s largest employer, and its continued success in providing a highly educated work force for Oshkosh and the Fox Valley are critically important to the city’s future.”
The new academic building will house the UW-Oshkosh College of Business and College of Letters and Science departments. It will help offset a shortage of 214,000 square feet of campus academic space.
The deal worked out between Chamco and the UW-Oshkosh Foundation will mean
Chamco will purchase the former Cub Foods building and sign a lease-purchase agreement with the university. A formal signing of the deal is expected on Nov. 1.
The university is continuing to negotiate with AxleTech International for acquisition of its plant at 1005 High Ave., but the availability of the former Cub Foods store was something that university officials felt they could not pass up.
Thomas Sonnleitner, UW-Oshkosh vice chancellor for administrative services, called it an “outstanding opportunity.” He said if the AxleTech property became available before the academic building project got underway, the former Cub Foods site would still be “invaluable for our space-strapped campus.”
As soon as it’s purchased, the site also will provide about 300 badly needed parking spaces for campus commuters. The site might provide enough parking to eliminate the need to build a second campus parking rampconstruction of the first is slated to get underway next summer.
The former Cub Foods site includes a 53,000 square-foot building on about 4.3 acres.
