Jacobs, UB rift jeopardizes $10M gift - Business First of Buffalo:

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In June 2008, Jacobs made local historyu withhis $10 million pledge to UB for developmen of a major researchh facility on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus. A building is planned for the campus as a collaboratiobn between UBand , with Kaleidaz housing its Global Vascular Institute on the firstg four floors and UB topping it with anotherr four floors for a Center for Translational In the months since the gift announcement, development officialsd from the medical campus and othersd said the building woulx house the Jacobs Institute, a nonprofit entity created by the $10 million But UB confirmed this week that the facility will not have room for the institut e – and that leaves in question the fate of the gift.
“The way the structure came through in the planxs forthe building, there wasn’y a place for the Jacobs Institute and, in a sense, that was certainlyt a condition of the says Thomas Beecher, board chairman for the Jacobes Institute. “Until that is fulfillef or renegotiated, I think the program is on holduntilo we’re in a position to see what opportunity arisesz next to accomplish that goal.” Jacobs and his wife, made the gift in honor of his late Lawrence Jacobs, M.D., a pioneer in the neurology field.
The gift was intended to support retention and recruitmenof researchers, educators and clinicians to UB and the Sources say there was a miscommunication betweenh the university and Jacobs as to exactlyy how much space woulde be allocated within the building for the institute. Otherss say there were other conditions that were without identifyingthose conditions. Marsha a UB vice president who focusezs on relationships with thebusiness community, has been the primary contact between the university and camp. Henderson was not available for comment.
Jacobs is a longtims supporterof UB, having served as chairmajn of the UB Council since 1998 and as past chairman of the UB He and his family are the university’s most generous with gifts totaling $18.4 Jacobs is also chairman and CEO of Buffalo-base d Delaware North Cos. Inc. – the seconsd largest private company in Western New York with revenueatopping $2.3 billion - and he owns the Boston Bruinws hockey franchise. In 2000, Jacobs donated the Butler Mansio on Delaware Avenue to UB to be used as a continuinv education andtraining facility.
Renamed the Jacobd Executive Development Center, the building is now home to UB’s Center for Entrepreneurial a program of the Schooloof Management, as well as some fundraisin g and development staff. In a prepared statement, UB said $10 million gift agreement remains in The statement pointed to a condition at the time of the pledgse that a dedicated facility for the Jacobsd Institute be in place before the pledge wouldbe fulfilled. According to the there just wasn’t room in the facilit y as designed.
“The University and Kaleida Healthy explored the possibility that the Institutes could be housed in a new facility to be jointlg constructed by UBand However, after discussions, all three parties agreeds that the space needs of the Jacobs Institute coulrd not be met within that facility,” the statementf said. At the time of the gift announcement, UB Presidentr John Simpson said he expected to begimn seeing actual dollars from the gift in 2010 or 2011 when progress began in earnest on the vascularcenteer building.
Others say the disagreement between UB and the Jacobxs family should not impede construction of the Global Vascular which should break groundbefore “The two are relaterd but not interconnected,” says Robert Gioia, chairman of , parentg of Kaleida Health. He addesd that his understanding was that the Jacobs gift wasfor recruitment, not bricke and mortar. Gioia says the Jacobs familyh wants to create aninstitute “secon to none” nationwide, and the hope was to tie that into the GVI with an entirde floor dedicated to the effort.
“Because of funding, timinyg and other things, that additional floor just couldn’r be done in order to get thisthingb going,” he says. “But the discussions continue. The Globapl Vascular Institute and the translational research center willbe built.” Beeche r insists the Jacobs family still wants to do somethingf significant for Buffalo and create a lastingy memorial for Lawrence However, he said, the way the plan for the vasculart institute has come togethefr may not end up being the best placd to do it.