Profit is against donor's wishes

Virginia Trembly turned down many suitors anxious to buy and develop her 300 acres in northern Colorado Springs more than 25 years ago. She chose to give the land to the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs with clear restrictions that it would go to education rather than a profit-making venture.

Today, the growing university says its plans for the property — building a research park with specialized science labs — would do just that. But Trembly’s daughter, Susan J. Watts, isn’t convinced.

She sees the possibility of private companies profiting from such a concept, which she said would violate deed restrictions. Her mother died in 1990.

“I want my mother’s gift to be handled with integrity,” Watts said.

Watts and university officials plan to meet Tuesday to discuss what could become a sticky issue involving one of the major parts of the school’s future.

Colleges sometimes walk a fine line as they try to meet wishes of generous donors while doing what they think best serves students.

Princeton University, for example, was sued by heirs of a supermarket fortune over a donation now valued at $880 million. They contend the school didn’t do what it promised the donors.

Yale University returned $20 million to a billionaire alumnus who said the school never created classes he had asked for.

Watts said that she doesn’t intend to take legal action, and that she hopes to find common ground in discussions with the university. She and her two grown children are the only heirs.

University spokesman Tom Hutton said that the land, east of Nevada Avenue and north of Austin Bluffs Parkway, has not been developed and that any plans to do so will comply with deed restrictions.

A research park is a concept found at universities across the country. There’s no question that such parks are educational. Students and faculty members conduct research in specialized labs, often with technology or tools not found in a basic chemistry or biology department.

Less certain is whether they could also be construed as commercial endeavors. In such ventures, universities usually work closely with private businesses to develop products and ideas. “Intellectual capital,” as it’s sometimes called, can lead to big business.

At North Dakota State University, the home of a successful research park and a place UCCS officials have visited for ideas, the John Deere company works to develop electronics equipment for tractors. Another private company, Alien Technology Corp., does research involving radio frequencies.

Watts said she wonders who would profit from similar projects at UCCS. She said she suspects that if a company were to make millions of dollars from work done on the land, it would violate the deed, which states that “no portion of said real property . . . shall be transferred, conveyed, assigned, granted, bargained, sold or utilized for commercial gain or profit.”

The deed calls for Colorado College to get the land if the conditions are not met by UCCS. Leslie Weddell, a CC spokeswoman, said that the downtown liberal arts school was informed of the matter, but that it considers it an issue between Watts and UCCS and is not involved.

Hutton said Trembly’s land is “crucial” for the UCCS research park, but added that decisions about partnerships with private companies, patents and profits have not been made.

The research park would be part of the city’s urban renewal plan for North Nevada Avenue, which also includes plans for an 80-acre retail center across the street. That plan, called University Center, would include a Costco Wholesale Club and a Lowe’s Home Improvement.

Trembly, who was a dentist for 49 years, owned the land at a time when developers were building many of the suburban homes that now cover northern Colorado Springs, Watts said. Her mother wanted no part of it.

Trembly donated the land to the college in exchange for getting to remain on the property until she died and getting a small subsidy to live on, Watts said.

“She had a lot of land,” Watts said. “They bought it for what we could call a song today.”

At the time, Watts said, the university asked for deed restrictions regarding profitmaking ventures to be removed, but Trembly refused.

Watts said there’s no financial motivation to interfere with the university’s plans: She just wants the college to know she and her children are there to look after what her mother wanted.

“I have absolutely nothing to gain,” she said, except to honor her mother’s wishes.

Hutton said the university plans to do so.

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