The Eugene City Council unanimously approved proposed terms to sell the 1930s riverfront steam plant for $1 to a development team in a Jan. 26 work session.

Led by Mark Miksis of deChase Miksis and Mark Frohnmayer of Arcimoto, the development team plans to turn the former Eugene Water and Electric Board steam plant into a community destination, complete with local food and drink, a performance and community arts space, a hotel and office space with university classes.

The redeveloped steam plant will anchor the southern end of the Downtown Riverfront Park Development — part of a larger city initiative to transform the inaccessible Willamette riverfront and bring in more housing.

The total cost of the redevelopment is $56 million, with the city contributing $1.5 million in Urban Renewal Funds and helping developers fill a $5.2 million funding gap. The city plans on requesting $5 million of state funding for the redevelopment.

“The steam plant has the potential to be one of the iconic locations in Eugene, a favorite destination for you and your neighbors and a must-see for anyone who’s visiting,” community development director Will Dowdy said.

The ground floor will feature an indoor/outdoor restaurant with views of the Willamette River from an overlook that will be built on the existing water intake structure that sits on the edge of the river, Dowdy said.

The building will include a performance and community arts space showcasing music, dance, demonstrations, lectures, speakers and local art. Dowdy said the development team added this feature after hearing community members share their desire to see the steam plant become a place for the creation and enjoyment of art.

The development team is planning art fellowship programs to help boost artists’ exposure, Dowdy said.

An independent hotel within the building will serve as the steam plant’s financial foundation for its preservation, Dowdy said. The development team is working closely with Embarcadero Hospitality Group, which runs two boutique hotels in Oregon.

The hotel would have 70 or more rooms with a variety of price ranges. Each space would celebrate the historic setting by incorporating the building’s found items with local art, Dowdy said.

The building will also include flexible office space with a mix of coworking, community and university classes, venture incubation for start-ups and established anchor tenants, Dowdy said.

“The steam plant’s unique proximity to the University of Oregon, Downtown and the river provide an opportunity to build a knowledge transfer bridge, further knitting the scholarly community with Eugene’s emerging technology and entrepreneurship clusters,” Dowdy said.

The development team plans to get the steam plant on the National Register of Historic Places, which recognizes properties for their significance in American history, and is committed to a non-carbon-based fuel source for all the primary mechanical systems in the building and electric-powered heating and cooling systems.

The city is selling the steam plant for only $1 because making the building safe for the public will take a lot of work from the developers, who are investing $49 million, Dowdy said.

City Councilor Jennifer Yeh said the steam plant’s redevelopment is an opportunity to correct a bad path.

“This is a really exciting project obviously, and one of those reasons is because I often see people looking at old photos of downtown and being really disappointed that we used urban renewal to demolish older, unique buildings rather than saving them,” Yeh said.

Some councilors had concerns about the finances of the project, although everyone agreed to move forward with it.

Councilor Matt Keating said repurposing the steam plant is a welcome benefit to the community but still had apprehension about how much money the project would bring to the city.

“There are elements that I wonder are necessary and the highest and best use of public dollars,” Keating said. “Do we need another boutique hotel in Eugene?”

Councilor Claire Syrett said she wanted to remind the public the city would have had to remediate the land at a significant cost if it chose to demolish the historic building, and the land has not been generating any tax revenues. The project will start paying taxes as soon as it is in the hands of the private developers, she said.
The team will close the property and start construction no later than Sept. 30, 2023, as long as the proposed terms are met and if both the city and the developers have identified the necessary funding during due diligence, according to a presentation for the project. Construction is projected to take approximately 18 months.