SANDPOINT Idaho
The founder of retailer Coldwater Creek has increased the amount he will spend to bring a University of Idaho branch campus to this resort town, and classes are scheduled to start in 2009.
The Idaho state Board of Education on Thursday night approved an agreement with Dennis Pence in which he will increase his contribution from $26 million to at least $36 million.
The board, meeting in Twin Falls, backed the plan to sell 77 acres owned by the University of Idaho just north of downtown Sandpoint to Pence’s Wild Rose Foundation for $6.25 million.
Most of that money would go into a trust for educational programs at the site, and the foundation would spend at least $30 million to build the first four buildings, which would then be given to the UI, according to the agreement.
“This is unique in that we’re really able to create a whole campus from the very beginning,” said Larry Branen, the UI’s associate vice president for northern Idaho.
The school’s main campus is in Moscow, about 100 miles south of Sandpoint.
