If students were planning to enjoy the revitalized downtown Eugene that city councilors have talked about during the last year, they may have to wait until they come back as alumni to see any change.
In the first city council meeting to discuss the future of Eugene’s downtown since the urban renewal ballot measure failed earlier this month, the council met with developers at the Eugene Public Library Tuesday night to determine what the city’s next step will be to rejuvenate the blighted West Broadway area.
That step, however, is looking like it might be in the opposite direction of the city as developers are hesitant to engage in the re-building of the downtown area.
“We wanted to re-do, and re-make and create a whole district” that would change downtown, said Thomas Kemper, a managing member of Kemper Co., one of the two Portland developers chosen to carry out the downtown facelift. However, the election results “popped the balloon … we’re not sure where to go with the project now” as it is hard to be real excited to move forward.
Kemper, part of KWG Development Partners, and Beam Development are feeling skittish. By heavily defeating the downtown measure, the local community shouted loud and clear that it doesn’t want the large scale development vision for the two blocks of West Broadway between Willamette and Charnelton streets.
“The bottom line is … we need the support of the community. This doesn’t work without the overwhelming support of the community,” said Brad Maslin, owner of Beam Development.
Both development firms had agreed on smaller-scale projects, filling the two downtown pits and renovating two buildings that have fallen into disrepair, before submitting the large-scale plan, but both are now reluctant to pursue those plans in the near future, citing the falling market as a clear danger marker.
“What timeline are you on?” Mayor Kitty Piercy asked Kemper, referring to the small-scale plan.
“We were talking about breaking ground in 12 months, and with the current market, we would slow that down considerably,” Kemper responded.
City Councilor Bonny Bettman led the charge against the grandiose plan and the ballot measure that would have allowed the spending for it. She repeatedly said there was no reason to move forward with such a large plan that would put the city into overwhelming debt.
Bettman was banking on the developers to stick to their agreements, and pursue the low-cost vision of re-doing the two buildings and filling the two pits.
The hesitation the developers expressed caused her to be a “little confused,” and demand a clear-cut answer on what level of involvement the city can expect from them.
“We just don’t have the time to play guessing games. We have to make some decisions,” Bettman said.
Because of purchasing deadlines on downtown properties, the city is in a time crunch as its options to buy those properties expire next spring
“They’re just playing it for their own advantage,” Bettman said of the two developers. “They want to see what the city will put on the table. Everyone holds out for that promise for the pot of money.”
While the theme of the night for the developers was “we’ll seriously have to look into that,” the motif for city councilors was a lack of consensus as a whole with how to proceed. The council will meet on Dec. 10 to discuss, again, what the next step will be for the West Broadway project.
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