The University and the Eugene City Council are locked in a battle of tug of war over the possibility of putting a new hospital in the University’s Riverfront Research Park – but it could end up being Eugene residents who lose out if a compromise is not found.
The city council has been trying to find a new home for the McKenzie-Willamette Medical Center for nearly two years, and the latest possible site is the nearly 60-acre research park on the north side of Franklin Boulevard, which currently houses 220,000 square feet of University research, laboratory, classroom and office space.
Hospital administration abandoned a previously desired site along North Delta Highway in January, and they want to find a new site before summer. If they do not find a site by then, there is the possibility that the medical center could drop the city as a potential host and look to Springfield or Glenwood instead.
As currently proposed, the Riverfront Research Park hospital site would encompass 27 acres and house the 24-hour trauma center, emergency department and acute care hospital. The location is attractive to hospital administrators and city councilors because it is the only proposed location that is south of the Willamette River – where the majority of Eugene’s population resides.

The University has serious concerns about the complications of the research park switching from school use to medical center host, and its list of needs has left city councilors looking into their wallets.
University officials recently sent a letter to the city stating it would be the responsibility of the city to relocate all of the University’s existing facilities, such as the Zebrafish International Resource Center and Art Department space, in a location near the University.
“Acreage ten miles from the campus is not as valuable to the university as acreage adjacent to campus,” according to the letter.
The amount of land used by the University that would need to be relocated would be the equivalent of 20 city blocks, University spokesman Phil Weiler said.
Even though the hospital is only planned to cover 27 acres, the University has told the city it must find a full 60-acre plot to relocate University facilities.
According to University estimates, it would cost the city between $55 million and $110 million to replace the facilities, and take at least five years to move the research park.
McKenzie-Willamette Medical Center wants to open a hospital in four to five years.
“The University always wants to be a good community partner … that said, we have some serious concerns about the Riverfront Research Park being a good location for a hospital,” Weiler said. “We cannot, in good conscience, abandon that site without an equal replacement.”
City planners have recommended the council drop the research park idea, but councilors have committed to the site and voted 5-2 on Monday in favor of hiring an outside negotiator to assist the city in talking with the University.
Weiler said the University has been in contact with the city councilors on the project, but he said there is no definite timeline to work out the negotiations.
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