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[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

It looks like the University of Chicago is currently in negotiations with a buyer for the Yerkes Observatory and surrounding grounds.

Historic Yerkes Observatory for sale
29 March, 2005

The University of Chicago has put the "for sale" sign out at its park-like 77-acre Yerkes Observatory site on the shores of Wisconsin's Lake Geneva.

The historic but technically obsolete observatory was a premier research institution in 20th Century astronomy, giving luminaries such as physicist Albert Einstein and astronomer Edwin Hubble a place to conduct undisturbed observations and research.

The Chicago Tribune said an East Coast developer offered the university around $10 million last summer to build dozens of houses and a European-style spa on the property. University trustees want the observatory preserved.

The three-domed, tan brick building was completed in 1897.

Aurora University, which owns the 240-acre George Williams College campus next to the Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, Wis., and long-time residents are in negotiations with a counter-offer to purchase the site.

Local residents want to preserve the waterfront site they consider to be the soul of the bay.

Copyright 2005 by United Press International

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Let's hope the locals win the bidding and keep the Observatory. I am quite fortunate to have visited Yerkes and was quite impressed with the whole grander of the worlds largest refracting telescope.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Group hopes to save university observatory on Geneva Lake

June 22, 2005 (WILLIAMS BAY, Wis.) — Some local residents in Williams Bay are trying to save a historic observatory and its 77-acre campus on the shores of Geneva Lake.
Developers want to buy the University of Chicago's Yerkes Observatory and build a resort and spa on the property.

Geneva Lake Conservancy chairman Charles Ebeling says it's the last undeveloped section of lakefront left on the lake.

The university is considering selling the property to a New York developer for a 180-room resort and 200-house subdivision.

Ebeling says Yerkes could serve as a cultural and conservation center with a museum of astronomy.

Yerkes was one of the first places physicist Albert Einstein visited in the United States, and astronomer Edwin Hubble, the namesake of the Hubble Orbital Telescope, earned his doctorate degree in astronomy there.

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Excellent that local intelligence is working to save Yerkes. It's quite a cool observatory.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Aurora University bids on Wisconsin telescope

$4.5 million: University would use former U of C facility for teaching, tourism

AURORA — Aurora University has submitted a $4.5 million bid to buy the world-renowned Yerkes Observatory from the University of Chicago, which has owned and operated the Wisconsin facility since building it in 1897.

Home to the world's largest refracting telescope and many of the 20th century's most important astronomical discoveries, Yerkes became obsolete and sat virtually unused during the past 25 years as more powerful star-gazing equipment was built elsewhere.

Last year, U. of C. administrators decided that they would sell the valuable property — a nearly 80-acre campus of lawns and woods fronting onto Lake Geneva in Williams Bay — to better fund the university's modern research efforts.

The fate of the three-domed observatory building itself remained uncertain, particularly after the university did not deny rumors that a New York luxury home builder was offering $10 million for the land.

Friday was U. of C.
's deadline for accepting bids on the property, and a university spokesman confirmed that at least one commercial developer made a formal offer in competition with AU, which submitted its bid on the final day.

U. of C. officials were still reviewing the bids Monday and declined to release details about the other bidder or bidders or their terms.

For its part, AU has released to the public all the details of its bid on the university's Web site, www.aurora.edu.

AU's proposal focuses on preserving the observatory buildings as well as most of the site to form an extension to the neighboring George Williams campus, a small college that AU acquired as a satellite campus in 2000.

Under AU's management, Yerkes would serve not as a research institution but as a teaching tool for astronomy students and educators, said AU Vice President Theodore Parge.

Yerkes' historic telescopes also would be available to amateur astronomers and tourists on a limited basis, Parge said.

As part of its proposal, AU also has established partnerships with Chicago's Adler Planetarium and Aurora's Illinois Math and Science Academy, which would contribute both expertise and students to Yerkes' new mission.

Others in the region's academic world also expressed interest working with a revitalized Yerkes, Parge said.



Preserving observatory


AU's proposal amounts to a leveraged buy-out: AU would pay U. of C. $4.5 million by selling a small portion of the total Yerkes site to be developed as 11 single-family houses.
That is the only way AU will be able to come up with enough money to make a serious offer on the property, Parge said, because the university is already committed to an expensive building campaign at its home campus on Aurora's West Side.

AU also will rely on support of local preservationists in the wealthy Lake Geneva community to help create an endowment that would fund Yerkes' future operation.

Although AU's offer is substantially less than the rumored $10 million development bid, U. of C. officials repeatedly have said that they would place a premium on a buyer's ability to preserve Yerkes' history and usefulness.

Parge said he hoped AU's ability to do just that would offset the weaker financial incentive.

Besides fulfilling U. of C.'s wish to see Yerkes win a new life, Parge said, bringing the observatory under its seal would be a major victory for AU to boost its learning opportunities — not to mention prestige.

"It has been a long process to get us to this point," Parge said, indicating he has no way of knowing how long U. of C. will wait before making a decision. "We'll just have to wait and see where it goes."


9/27/05
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Great!... ;D I hope the bid is accepted and kept for academic studies and training.

[lelsaucedo]

Wow. The only thing that is bothersome is the sale of land to build luxury homes. I will write to the U of C and beg them not to sell out to a NY developer. I mean we just lost Marshall Fields to Macey's after all!

[Al Degutis]

I should visit Yerkes. It's been in my "backyard" (only 20-30 minutes from my home) since I moved here two years ago and I have yet to pay it a visit.

And hopefully U of C makes a decision that's right for the community, not the pocketbook.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

It takes a town's University to step up and make the offer to save the Yerkes Observatory...while most everyone else just looked on.

The University of Chicago should be ashamed of it's self!...

I hope they get it!