Eugene planners recommend that the City Council pick a Portland developer to build 201 student apartments on the excavated pit and parking lots north of Eugene's public library.
The City Council on Monday will evaluate five proposals to redevelop the city-owned site, including the leading ideas from Opus Northwest of Portland and WG Development of Eugene. Councilors are supposed to choose one of the developers to negotiate with City Manager Jon Ruiz and his staff during the next three months on a sale and development agreement for the half-block site.
Two of the five proposals were considered insufficient because they did not have enough detail or financial backing. One, called a "Trannovation Station," proposed a multistory building with a solar array on the roof that would power a recharging station for electric vehicles. The other, dubbed a "Connections Center," proposed a building for "centralized arts, education and healing services."
A third idea, for an upscale hotel, failed to meet the city's design goals and building density requirements.
In a written report to councilors, city planner Nan Laurence said WG's proposal to build a five-story office and apartment building on the parcel has merit. But the financial strength and readiness of Opus to immediately build a six-story, $40 million apartment building geared for college students makes it a better choice, Laurence wrote.
"The Opus project includes market feasibility, financial feasibility, developer capacity to deliver the project, and a desire and willingness to compete the project in a timely manner," she wrote.
The planners' recommendation, endorsed by Ruiz, the city manager, differs from the one by a residents' committee, which endorsed the WG Development proposal. WG wants to build 83 apartments on three upper floors and offices and retail space on the first two floors.
Committee members liked the mixed-use elements of WG's plan because some of the building could be leased to Pacific University, which now rents on East Broadway in the downtown. The design, with an inner courtyard, also would present a more friendly face to the street and complement the library, members said.
Both developers asked for city subsidies, including 10-year property tax breaks on the buildings.
But Laurence said other parts of the Opus proposal give it an advantage over WG, including the Opus offer to buy the city property - with an estimated value of $1.65 million - for $482,360. Though below the estimated value, the Opus offer is greater than WG's offer to buy the land for $1, she wrote.
WG also had said it wants a complete a market analysis before deciding whether it will proceed, Laurence wrote.
In a letter to Laurence, Opus Vice President John Bartell said his firm wants to start construction by year end so it can be ready for students to rent in fall 2010.
A delay in picking a developer would push the project's completion back another year, he wrote.
"The Opus proposal was designed to deliver a project that can be built now," Bartell wrote. "It wasn't designed to win the competition and then figure out if it will work. Opus did its market study upfront. None of the competitors did. We don't want to waste our time, the staff's time or the council's time with a proposal that can't be built."
After learning about the Opus endorsement by planners, WG partners Nathan Philips and Wally Graff wrote councilors on Friday. They sought to address concerns about the lack of an official market study for their $34 million project and any questions about their capacity to pay for it.
They don't need a financial feasibility study after all, they said in an e-mail.
Publicity about the project has generated interest in renting the proposed apartments and offices, they wrote. Forty percent of the office space has been reserved with letters of intent from potential renters, they said, "with strong interest for an additional 40 percent."
The partners also said they have lined up enough local investors to pay for the building.
"As longtime residents of Eugene, we strongly believe that we have put together a project that directly addresses the revitalization needs of the downtown neighborhood," Philips and Graff wrote. "While we recognize the need in the city for student housing, we do not see an influx of 500 students to downtown as having the potential to catalyze the needed changes."
