BLOOMSBURG -- Bloomsburg University announced Friday that a former resident and his wife donated $1 million to the university's foundation. The donation will go towards a $6.5 million office building that promises to bring new customers to downtown Bloomsburg.
Officials at Bloomsburg University announced plans to bridge the gap between the university and the town by constructing a four-story office building on Main Street for the Bloomsburg University Foundation.
"It's a remarkable opportunity for the town and the community to come together," Jerome Dvorak said.
The building is being partially funded through a $1 million donation from Duane and Susan Greenly. The rest of the $6.5 million project came from the BU Foundation. The Greenly's met while they were students at Bloomsburg University.
"We felt we were very prepared by the education we got here and the experiences we had. What better way to try to ensure that for future students," Susan Greenly said.
"When we were talking about what we wanted to do to give back, we looked at a lot of things, but Bloomsburg is number one in our hearts, so it was an easy decision to give back to Bloomsburg," Duane Greenly said.
The building will be known as the Greenly Center, and it will be located on East Main Street at the site of the former Cole's Hardware.
Bloomsburg University officials say parking will not cause any problems for downtown Bloomsburg because an underground parking facility will be built underneath the Greenly Center, with space for 18 vehicles.
Local restaurants hope the new office building will bring additional business to Bloomsburg.
"If we had people coming in from across the street for lunch, it would definitely bring in more people for the business so it would be good for us," Heather Gallagher of Bloomin' Bagels said.
"Our lunch is either hit or miss right now. Some days we're slow some days we're busy so I think it will help our lunch pick up a lot," Ashley Thompson of Tri Pi Pizzaria said.
Bloomsburg University officials expect construction on the Greenly Center to start in August. The building is scheduled to open in July of 2014.