Woodbury Corporation Donates $1 Million to USU's Wayne Estes Center

Woodbury Corporation, a real estate development company headquartered in Salt Lake City, has donated $1 million to the Wayne Estes Center, Utah State University’s new athletic center, as part of its ongoing commitment to strengthening the communities in which it does business.

Woodbury Corporation and USU have a working relationship that spans more than 25 years. Currently, Woodbury Corporation and its affiliates own and manage 10 buildings at the university’s Innovation Campus. Among the state-of-the-art facilities at the Innovation Campus is the Space Dynamics Laboratory, which for the last two decades has been developing and launching student research into space via NASA space shuttles.

“Woodbury feels a deep responsibility to build up and reinvest in our communities,” said Jeff Woodbury, vice president of development and acquisitions for Woodbury Corporation. “As it happens, through years of working together we’ve developed a great relationship with Utah State, and we’ve gotten to the point where we feel like honorary Aggies. So when the opportunity arose to help support the school’s tremendous student athletes perform at their peak, we were more than happy to offer funding for this incredible new facility.”

The Wayne Estes Center is a 32,000-square-foot basketball practice facility and volleyball competition venue. It opened in May 2014 and contains two regulation-size basketball courts and a regulation-size volleyball competition court with chair-back seating for 1,400 fans, along with a training room and in-season strength and conditioning area. Office space for both men’s and women’s basketball and volleyball is also included in the facility, as well as a locker room and film room for volleyball.

USU President Stan Albrecht said the university has had a long relationship with members of the Woodbury Corporation — a relationship that is both professional and personal.

“These are among the most loyal benefactors of our institution, and we appreciate the support we've received over the years and with this current gift,” Albrecht said. “I certainly count them as some of our most devoted institutional supporters, but they also have become like family to many of us.”

USU Vice President and Athletic Director John Hartwell said the Woodbury gift will give USU's student athletes a first-class facility used for basketball practice and as an elite volleyball competition venue.

“The Estes Center provides our student-athletes and coaches in the sports of men’s basketball and women’s basketball and volleyball one of the finest training and competition facilities in the country. It is only through the generosity of donors such as the Woodbury Corporation that such a facility could be built.”

Woodbury was honored for its support of the Wayne Estes Center at a special luncheon Nov. 10 at Utah State’s David B. Haight Alumni Center.

Woodbury contact: Amanda Butterfield, Woodbury Corporation PR, 801-440-9837, A_butterfield@woodburycorp.com

USU contact: Doug Hoffman, USU associate AD, director for media relations, 435-797-3714, doug.hoffman@usu.edu