Excitement ran high at the Ohio University Board of Trustees meeting and applause rang out Friday as the board unanimously passed a motion to expand OU’s Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine facilities by acquiring land near Columbus.
The motion allowed OU President Roderick McDavis to spend approximately $11 million to purchase the parcel, located on Coach Road in Dublin, a Columbus suburb.
The new purchase will allow OU-HCOM to develop a presence closer to the state capital, said Trustee Sandra Anderson, chairwoman of the University Resources Committee.
Initial projections had put the expected cost at $24 million dollars, but the acquisition of the parcel should not cost more than $11 million, Anderson said.
A current tenant will remain on the land and will continue paying rent — totaling $850,000 per year — to OU.
The board voted to acquire 14.9 acres and three buildings for use by OU-HCOM. There will also be 50 new primary care physicians trained at the new facility, said Stephen Golding, vice president for Finance and Administration.
Now that OU has decided to buy the land on Coach Road, the administration will enter into preliminary discussions with the City of Dublin concerning a possible gift of 90 acres of land once OU determines how the college would use it, Golding said.
“The City of Dublin has made it clear they want to give us the land,” Golding said.
OU is still planning how exactly they will use the space and what features the new campus will include. The project is still in its initial phases, McDavis said.
The next step will be to actually finalize the purchase and determine what renovations must be made to the buildings, Golding said.
Donna Goss, the director of engagement and real estate management, led the search for a site for the new facility. After reviewing the processes and criteria, she visited 12 different sites around Columbus and eventually narrowed it down to the Dublin site.
“The negotiations only came to fruition yesterday morning,” Anderson said on Friday.
Jack Brose, dean of OU-HCOM, said the purchase was the culmination of a lot of work and that staff and faculty members at the college are very excited.
“This is really a historic day for Ohio University,” McDavis said.
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