By Hannarose McGuinness
Eugene Register-Guard

A project to turn the former Lane Community College building on Willamette Street into a mixed-use affordable housing project got a big infusion of funding from Eugene’s Urban Renewal Agency Board.

The Eugene City Council approved an additional $8.66 million in funding during a council work session on June 22.

The development includes construction of a six-story, mixed-use, mixed-income building near the downtown Lane Transit District bus station. The building would have 133 apartments, with 68 of those units affordable to households earning up to 80 percent of the Area Median Income, or about $55,000 in annual income for a single person. The other 65 units would be market rate with no income limits.

The building also would include ground-floor commercial space, a public gallery and mural, and help activate a downtown block that has been empty for more than a decade.

The project at 1059 Willamette St. has been stalled due to a funding gap the additional dollars are intended to close. According to a news release, the City and Downtown Urban Renewal District will invest $10.5 million in the project to cover early costs such as permits and system fees and to offset construction costs affected by rising prices and high interest rates.

The City also has supported the project by selling the land to developers for $1 and granting a 10-year property tax exemption through the City’s Multi-Unit Property Tax Exemption, or MUPTE, program.

At the June 22 work session, Mayor Kaarin Knudson said city officials have long wanted to see more city-center workforce housing that is dense, transit-oriented and developed in partnership with local teams to meet the community’s goals. She said, ”It is incredibly exciting to see this project moving forward as an example.”

Funding comes from tax-increment financing, a method of freezing property tax rates in specific areas in order to reinvest additional revenues into improvement projects in that district.

The total project is expected to cost about $38.7 million.

The city is partnering with developers deChase Miksis and Edlen & Company for this project.

Within the next three months, the city must transfer the property to developers. Construction is expected to begin soon after the transfer is finalized.

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The city of Eugene and private developers are working on a series of significant projects near the banks of the Willamette River in a bid to revitalize the long-neglected waterfront.

Walker Macy is designing a 4.5-acre riverfront park for the city of Eugene. The aim is to link downtown Eugene to the river with a newly constructed multiuse path.

“It’s a really exciting opportunity to connect the people of Eugene and visitors with the water,” said Chelsea McCann, managing principal of Walker Macy. “The Willamette is important to the city. It’s hard to get to, right? We’re trying to remedy that, at least to the extent that we can, and create easier transitions and pathways for people to get from the urban core to the water.”

Nearby, developer Atkins Dame is planning for the first buildings on a former Eugene Water & Electric Board industrial site.

Atkins Dame is led by Jim Atkins and Dike Dame, two developers who have left their mark on Portland by revitalizing neighborhoods such as the Pearl District and the South Waterfront District. They also teamed up to build two condo towers and a hotel in Los Angeles’ South Park neighborhood.

Atkins Dame has closed on the land and acquired equity for the first two Eugene buildings, Dame said. KPFF is advising the developers on the new streetscape, and consulting with Walker Macy on the riverfront park.

“This is something that Eugene has been trying to make happen for a long, long time,” Dame said.

In the first phase, Atkins Dame will construct two multifamily buildings with approximately 228 units. The buildings will not include retail space, but that is planned as the neighborhood grows, Dame said.

“I don’t see office in the cards,” Dame said. “It will primarily be multifamily and neighborhood-serving retail, but the retail will also be attractive to people coming to the neighborhood for the new park.”

SERA Architects is designing the first two buildings, and Essex General Construction of Eugene is on board as contractor. (SERA completed a master plan for Atkins Dame in 2018).

“We’ve acquired about 360,000 square feet of property, so over time there will be a number of other projects,” Dame said. “These are just the first two.”

A separate development team, led by Mark Miksis of deChase Miksis and Mark Frohnmayer of Arcimoto, is negotiating with the city of Eugene to redevelop the EWEB steam plant. The Miksis-Frohnmayer group has unveiled adaptive reuse plans that call for inclusion of office space.

Construction of the waterfront park is well under way. Crews are working to complete the project ahead of the World Athletics Championships, a 10-day track and field competition set to take place in Eugene in July 2022.

The multiuse path will connect to Fifth Avenue, a street in the heart of downtown Eugene that is home to the Fifth Street Public Market and other restaurants and shops. The trail will include amenities to serve pedestrians and bicyclists, McCann said.

The project is part of a nascent movement to create access to the river in Willamette Valley cities that once used it primarily for heavy industry. Albany is at work on its own project to connect downtown with the Willamette River, which currently is blocked by a street, parking lots and thick foliage. In Portland, some activists are lobbying for greater access to the river from the Eastbank Esplanade.

In Eugene, Walker Macy is restoring the riverbanks along the trail.

“We’re planting with native species, but throughout this area we’re also trying to be really cognizant of plant scale,” McCann said. “We want to keep the views open.”

Trail users will have ample opportunities to linger.

“There’s lot of spots to sit and enjoy the river,” she said.

McCann said people were discussing what to do with the EWEB property when she was studying landscape architecture at the University of Oregon in the late 1990s. For years, the trail has been a narrow path, fenced off from the river, with few amenities.

“We’re excited to have it finally open up and having people using it,” she said.

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