Officials at OSU-Cascades have made no secret of the fact that they’re hunting for more space. Now they believe they have found it, and if the Legislature comes through they’ll get it in a fashion that saves money nearly from Day 1.

The Oregon State University branch currently rents from Central Oregon Community College, and that would not change. What would change is that the school’s graduate programs would move down the hill to a building in southwest Bend. The branch can lease the building, but that hardly makes good financial sense.

We say that because the price of commercial real estate, like the price of your home, has dipped during the recession, making a purchase substantially less expensive than it was even a couple of years ago. In fact, OSU-Cascades officials say, if they were to purchase rather than rent the building they’re currently looking at, they’d save about $225,000 per year. They plan to share the building with Bend Research, the Bend company that focuses on pharmaceutical and defense research.

Still, OSU-Cascades doesn’t have the nearly $4 million purchase price stuffed beneath its mattress. That’s where Rep. Jason Conger, R-Bend, and the Oregon Legislature come in.

Conger has introduced a bill, HB 3627, that would allow the state to sell $1.95 million in bonds backed by lottery proceeds to pay for a bit over half the building. The branch itself would put up $1 million, while a private donor would contribute the $800,000 balance.

Though we’re not big fans of additional spending when revenues are tight, this case is different. The state will not be on the hook for the bonds except in an emergency.

More important, it doesn’t make sense for an institution like OSU-Cascades to rent when it can buy space for less money. It will be able to lease what it doesn’t need immediately to Bend Research and perhaps to the governor’s Regional Solutions Center, keeping the building full but giving the branch campus’s graduate programs room to grow over time. The plan offers the college what it needs, more room, at a good price.