Did Trump-Hating Governor Candidate Profit From Controversial University Deal?

A Gateway Pundit EXCLUSIVE investigation!

Orthopedic surgeon. 4 year state representative. Former candidate for Oregon Secretary Of State. Director of a non profit health center. Current candidate for governor on the Republican ticket. Trump hater. But did he profit from Oregon State University’s heavily criticized expansion campus in Bend, OR? This is the story and paper trail that links Knute Buehler to the project that stuck a university campus in an already congested neighborhood, amid strong push back from community members.

Though he’s running for the Republican party nomination, Dr. Buehler has been heavily criticized in this primary election for not being conservative enough, siding with the democrats on issues such as gun control, being pro-choice, voicing support for single payer health care, and voting to fund “green energy” projects. The Buehler campaign has even gone so far as to make multiple different videos over the course of his time in the Oregon legislature highlighting the many democrats who support him. Buehler has also been skipping out on numerous candidate forums across the state.

The college campus in question, eventually becoming what is now known as the OSU Cascades campus, faced heavy push back from community members when it was initially conceived. Hundreds of residents in the neighborhood along Century Drive on the south end of Bend banded together. Citing the fact that the area was already too congested and traffic was a mess, fearing what thousands of college students commuting in and out on a daily basis would do, they urged officials to put the college campus somewhere else. Their organization, known as Truth In Site, stated that they were not opposed to a college campus in the area, they just wanted it in more suitable area, and suggested several other areas around Bend that were not yet developed and would better serve the nature of the college and the community at large. The campus is expected to have an enrollment of 5,000 students in the coming years.

Though it’s dormant now, the Truth In Site facebook page had hundreds of likes, and their members routinely attended city council and county commission meetings to urge officials of pick a different area for the OSU campus, as well as writing swaths of letters to the editor in the Bend Bulletin, the area’s most distributed newspaper. They took their case all the way to the state Supreme Court, but of course the government always looks out for the best interest of the government.

The land at 1500 SW Chandler Ave. was signed over to the State Board Of Higher Education on February 3rd, 2014 by Michael Gonsalves of Cascade Property Holdings for $4,980,000.

But who is Michael Gonsalves? What is Cascade Property Holdings? And how does a blank chunk of land with nothing on it sell for nearly $5 Million?

Michael Gonsalves is listed as the manager for Cascade Property Holdings in the Secretary Of State business registry. Oddly, listed as “members” of Cascade Property Holdings are Deschutes Property Holdings and St. Charles Health System. (Deschutes is the name of both the county and the river that runs through town).

Knute Buehler is a former board member of St. Charles Health System, and that is also the hospital campus where his non profit medical facility, The Center, is located. In fact, Knute Buehler is, or at least was, a paid member of the board of directors of St. Charles Health System at one point in time. He made headlines last year by not reporting a payment had received from said Health System in 2013 in election documents. No telling how much total he made from St. Charles Health System.

Stranger still, Knute Buehler also sits or has sat on the boards of the Oregon State University Foundation and the OSU-Cascades Campus. He may have been on the boards representing both the buyer and seller in this land deal. How could one represent the best interest of two organizations who are negotiating with each other at the same time, especially when it’s not his money at stake as on the buyer’s end, but his organization stands to profit on the seller’s end?

Listed as the registered agent for Cascade Property Holdings is Ater Wynne, a law firm in Portland that’s chock full of liberal lawyers. In fact, former state rep and current state Senate candidate, Shemia Fagan, democrat, used to be one of their staff attorneys.

Michael Gonsalves is also a donor to Knute Buehler’s political aspirations.

The property that eventually became OSU Cascades campus was previously purchased for $1,280,000 back in 2003, transferring from Deschutes Medical Buildings to Cascade Medical Buildings. The property was transferred again for the sum of $0 from Cascade Medical Buildings to Cascade Property Holdings in 2007, which could have been due to a change in business name or a merger of some kind.

In another document obtained by The Gateway Pundit, Buehler is listed as a “director” for The Center and Deschutes Property Holdings.

This property, which was a pile of dirt, trees, and brush, ended up selling for four times the price that it was previously purchased for, from which Knute Buehler’s St. Charles Health System and Deschutes Property Holdings reaped the profits, with taxpayers and college students picking up the tab, to stick the university campus in an area of town where few wanted it.

It’s possible that they had the vacant lot of dirt and twigs rezoned, thereby increasing the property value, ala how Harry Reid made his fortune.

8 months after the deal was sealed, Knute and his wife, Patty Buehler, leveled up to a $1 Million riverfront home. Coincidence?

Both Cascade Property Holdings and Deschutes Property Holdings would file articles of dissolution with the Secretary Of State after the deal was completed.

Even the universal healthcare proponent Lund Report did an article talking about how this land sold for 22% higher than it had been appraised at. In that article, author Christopher David Grey reported “The sellers walked away with $890,000 more than the appraised value of $4,090,000. That price tag was just under the $5 million cap which would have required prior approval of the State Board of Education.

They negotiated the deal for just under the amount that would have raised red flags and drawn scrutiny and increased analysis.

Knute Buehler has raised over $3 Million so far in this election, much of which is being spent on an ad blitz right now to try to make up for his questionable voting record.

A source who wishes to remain anonymous tells The Gateway Pundit that The Center, the non profit clinic in which Knute is on the board of directors, spent $500,000 on an elaborate waterfall and fountain for his non profit clinic.

This source spoke on anonymity because they say that Knute Buehler has a reputation for bullying other doctors and medical professionals in the area. The person told us that Knute strong armed the St. Charles hospital into footing half the bill for his medical center by threatening to build it on the other side of town, and thus would have created a competing hospital.

Some of these documents came from a source within the Democratic Party of Oregon, so it’s very likely they had all of this information and they were waiting, hoping, for Buehler to win the primary so they could launch it against him. The democrats likely want Knute to get the Republican nomination because their well funded opposition research team has uncovered things like this about Knute, and they know they can attack him harder than the other candidates. The democrats would much rather face Knute Buehler in the general election than Trump supporting Sam Carpenter, who is running neck and neck with Buehler for the nomination. The other competition in the primary, Greg Wooldridge, is financed by a deep pocketed democrat donor with possible ties to Hillary Clinton.

Dear Reader - The enemies of freedom are choking off the Gateway Pundit from the resources we need to bring you the truth. Since many asked for it, we now have a way for you to support The Gateway Pundit directly - and get ad-reduced access. Plus, there are goodies like a special Gateway Pundit coffee mug for supporters at a higher level. You can see all the options by clicking here - thank you for your support!

 

Thanks for sharing!