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Two offers on the table for defunct museum property By SARA MURPHY -- The vacant building that once housed the Pacific Northwest Museum of Natural History soon may see new life as a community science center. Two parties have made offers to buy the defunct museum's land lease and 26,000-square-foot building, which sits at East Main and Walker Avenue on property owned by Southern Oregon University. The SOU Foundation and Ashland residents John and Sharon Javna, backed by the Seattle-based Kirlin Foundation, have made independent offers to buy the building and bring it back to life as an interactive science center. The facility, listed for $3 million with RE/MAX Realty Group, has sat empty since the natural history museum closed after three years in September 1997. The Pacific Institute of Natural Science, the nonprofit organization that ran the museum, was able to earn enough to cover operating expenses, but couldn't pay off the $3.2 million it borrowed from the Bank of New York to complete the $10 million building. Since the museum's closure, the university has been interested in acquiring the building to reopen it as a "community-based science interpretive center," said SOU President Stephen Reno. Trustees of the SOU Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting the university, made a formal offer to purchase the building in December. The foundation submitted an amended offer, which is still pending, to the Bank of New York about two weeks ago, Reno said. "As of this date, the trustees have not been notified that their offer has been rejected," Reno said Friday. Meanwhile, the Javnas teamed up with the Kirlin Foundation, which funds educational projects in the Pacific Northwest, and made an offer to purchase the building, which was provisionally accepted by the Pacific Institute on April 28, the Javnas said in a press release. The Javnas have supported the idea of a hands-on science center since they moved to Ashland from the San Francisco Bay Area five years ago. Sharon Javna is a nonpracticing litigation attorney and full-time mom; John, a writer and publisher, is the owner of EarthWorks Press. Sharon Javna declined comment on whether she and her partners knew the SOU Foundation's most recent offer was still on the table when they proposed the museum purchase. Still, the Javnas say they aren't necessarily competing with the university. "Our ultimate goal is to see the entire building utilized as an interactive science center," John Javna said. "I don't think it's important who owns the building." Though Reno said the Javnas "are not acting on behalf of the university," he said they do share the same basic vision that the center be community-based with a focus on science. "We see it as a community-based science interpretive center," Reno said. "Not as a tourist facility that would pull people off I-5, although in time it might well develop into that, but rather as a place where kids of all ages can have an opportunity to learn more about the physical world, the natural world and technology, too." Reno said SOU officials are "prepared to engage in conversations that might harmonize both of these initiatives to a common purpose. But at this time, it would be premature to speculate regarding the possible outcome of those conversations." Today's Edition : News | Sports | Business | Weather | Tempo | Classifieds Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA