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Oregon State University has purchased land in Bend and hired a design team to tackle the first phase of a fast-tracked project to create a new campus for OSU-Cascades by fall 2015.

OSU officials early this week closed a $4.98 million deal to purchase from Cascade Property Holdings LLC a 10-acre parcel near the intersection of Southwest Century Drive and Chandler Avenue, said Kelly Sparks, OSU-Cascades associate vice president of finance and strategic planning. Eventually, officials plan to purchase an additional 46-acre parcel nearby for OSU-Cascades as it transitions from a two-year university at Central Oregon Community College into a four-year one with its own campus.

OSU officials last month hired Portland-based Boora Architects to perform first-phase site planning and design an estimated $13.4 million academic building, said Jane Barker, interim senior project manager with OSU-Cascades. The approximately 45,000-square-foot academic building will include classrooms, science labs, administrative and faculty offices and student study space, she said.

Boora Architects is tackling the project in partnership with Portland-based Walker Macy and Bend-based BBT Architects.

Construction of the estimated $24 million first phase – including academic, research, residential and commercial spaces – could begin as soon as this summer, Sparks said.

OSU soon will issue a request for proposals for a general contractor, Barker said. She said she’s confident the university can meet the tight project schedule.

“We’ve laid out a process; it’s a fairly aggressive process,” she said. “We’ve set up a structure where we’re going to have to do multiple bid packages. We can hopefully get it in place where we’re going to meet the fall 2015 schedule.”

University officials also are negotiating a contract with INTO University Partnerships, a British company, to build on site an approximately 100,000-square-foot living-learning center with classrooms, residential spaces and dining spaces mostly for freshmen, sophomores and international students. Although an agreement is not finalized, the developer has hired ZGF Architects to design the project, Sparks said.

The Oregon State Board of Higher Education this past fall approved OSU’s request for a special procurement method to contract with INTO on the project, Sparks said. As part of any agreement that OSU signs with INTO, the developer would be required to use a competitive selection process for hiring design professionals and comply with Oregon’s prevailing wage law, she said.

OSU officials sought the advice of INTO while designing the $52 million International Living-Learning Center, completed in 2011 at the university’s main campus in Corvallis, Sparks said. The building houses INTO OSU, a program founded in 2008 to increase the number of international students.

INTO is expected to help recruit international students to OSU-Cascades, Sparks said.

“They have had a very good partnership with us in Corvallis and we would like to extend that to Bend,” she said.

Barker said the planned OSU-Cascades living-learning center would have about 300 beds, 10 classrooms, office space and a dining hall able to serve as a central campus gathering space.

“That’s really going to be the space that supports the residents, but also the other students and the community as well,” she said. “Our goal is for it not to feel like a cafeteria, but more like a restaurant.”

Last year, the Oregon Legislature approved funding for the first phase of the OSU-Cascades project. The university also raised $4 million in private donations. OSU officials are requesting more state money to complete the project on the remaining 46-acre property the university intends to purchase from 4R Equipment LLC, Sparks said.

The university will soon issue a request for proposals from design firms for development of a master plan for the entire 56-acre campus, Barker said. This will include working with the city of Bend to tweak the property’s zoning, which currently is split into residential, commercial and surface mining, she said.

OSU also is investigating how concrete and rubble from the abandoned pumice mine on the site could impact construction, Sparks said.

“We have to figure out what’s there and build through,” she said.