In the two days following the unveiling of a 4,074-square-foot home overlooking the Willamette River, which will be sold to help support Fanconi Anemia research, the site has been the focus of enormous public interest.
“We’ve had at least 400 people in the house,” said Ruby Brockett, a broker and owner of Prudential Preferred Properties, the real estate agency selling the home. She said 15 to 20 people is a good turnout at a typical home showing.
People are interested in both the house and the mission behind its creation, Brockett said.
That mission started with Greg and Linda Roberts, owners of Koala Construction. The Robertses got to know University President Dave Frohnmayer, his wife Lynn and their efforts to fight Fanconi Anemia — a genetic disease that typically afflicts young children and causes leukemia, bone marrow failure and other cancers — when they remodeled the Frohnmayers’ southeast Eugene home two years ago. The Frohnmayers have lost two daughters, Kirsten and Katie, to complications from Fanconi Anemia, and the life of their 13-year-old daughter Amy is threatened by the disease.
The Robertses wanted to do something to help support the Fanconi Anemia Research Fund, a non-profit agency founded by the Frohnmayers in 1989 with the goal of funding research toward a cure or treatment for the disease. So they did what they do best: They built a house.
“It was an extremely heart-warming project to be a part of,” Linda Roberts said.
Their original goal was to raise $50,000 for the fund, but the Robertses, with the help of 84 subcontractors who gave time and materials, will donate $225,000 when the house is sold.
“It leaves you with a great sense of pride and accomplishment,” Linda Roberts said. The subcontractors who worked on the home all received T-shirts with “I helped save the life of a child” printed on them.
She said she thought that soliciting donations from subcontractors would be the most difficult part of the project, but she was pleased to find that people were more than willing to give.
“The community pulled together and wanted to be a part of it,” Linda Roberts said. “Because [Fanconi Anemia] affects children, people are more apt to do something. It hits your heart pretty hard.”
The house, which is listed at $725,000, includes such luxury amenities as granite countertops and marble in the master bathroom, a media room with Dolby Surround Sound, a DVD player and outdoor speakers shaped like rocks in the front and back yards.
“It’s an absolutely wonderful outpouring of community support for the cause,” Dave Frohnmayer said. “It will result in a substantial boost for our research fund.”
He said the donation could represent one-third or as much as one-half of the fund’s annual grant budget. Researchers in more than 30 countries have received grants, averaging $50,000 to $80,000, from the fund. The donation from the sale of the house could result in seven or eight more research grants, Frohnmayer said.
At 3265 Riverplace Dr., the house is one of only about a dozen in the Eugene area that actually has a view of the Willamette River flowing, he said.
Frohnmayer called the setting spectacular and very peaceful.
The house is open Thursdays and Fridays from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays from noon to 4 p.m. through June 18.