Several months after the sale of the Westmoreland housing complex and the hand-off of the property to new owners, the 40 year-old facilities are experiencing relatively rapid changes.
Rents have risen, apartments have been remodeled and childcare facilities are up and running as of last week.
Although the original verbal agreement with Westmoreland’s new owner Michael O’Connell was for the childcare center to open by Sept. 1, the need to find a quality caregiver and get state inspections for the facility delayed the opening, O’Connell said. The center, in the same location as the one operated under the University’s ownership, opened on Nov. 1.
“We have a really good experienced operator that has been a child-care operator for more than 10 years,” O’Connell said. “She has qualified teachers and will do a fine job.”
Watson said that while he still thinks the sale was “absolutely absurd,” the overall experience has been positive.
“I think the new management is doing all they can – or at least a reasonable amount at this point in time – to lessen the damage to the community,” he said.
Bing Li, the former chair of the Westmoreland Tenant’s Council said in an e-mail that the new owners are taking care of the property “so far so good,” but that life there is not the same without a tenants council. She said the lack of organized community activities hurts and isolates the tenants and prevents them from meeting new neighbors. She said the tight bonds the tenants used to have have been broken, and the community feels abandoned by the University. The lack of community at Westmoreland creates a void for the University, Li said.
When O’Connell purchased the property, he made a “verbal agreement” with the University to not raise rent by more than 12 percent in order to keep rents at a rate lower than the comparable market price for the area.
While the most expensive units at Westmoreland now rent for nearly $600, several variables affect the rents, which range from $465 to $595 on newly remodeled models. While these prices reflect a very large increase from previous rates, the 12 percent agreement between O’Connell and the University was intended to apply only to units that had not been remodeled.
Nearly 170 of the 404 apartments have been completely remodeled, O’Connell said. These units have brand-new carpet, new kitchen cabinets, dishwashers and new lighting fixtures, among other amenities, said Amanda Tuski, Bell Real Estate’s senior property manager at Westmoreland. These are the units with the most expensive rent.
Apartments that have not yet been remodeled rent from $395 to $495, depending on when the tenant moved in, the size of the apartment and the length of the lease, Tuski said. The rates for month-to-month leases on these apartments are only a small increase over the rates for the same sized apartments when the University owned the complex and all units were rented on a month-to-month basis. These rates are all within the 12 percent agreement with O’Connell. There are no more of these apartments available and as people move out, the units are slated for remodeling, Tuski said.
Both O’Connell and Tuski said that rental rates were based on an extensive survey of the apartment market in West Eugene. O’Connell said that they tried to make the rates comparable to apartments of similar sizes but admitted the Westmoreland apartments are smaller than most of the competitive units. He said that the prices of all the units, including the more expensive remodeled ones, are below the market price.
“Our most important criteria was to provide moderate rents for moderate-income people,” he said.
Students who were already living at Westmoreland prior to the sale were given the option to stay in their units and continue paying the same University rate they were paying prior to the sale for up to two years after the sale date. The University pays the difference between the student rent and what Bell charges for the same apartments, all of which are the non-remodeled units. Tuski said she was unsure of the exact amount the University pays because of the differences in leases, but that it ranges between approximately $50 and $110 per month for each of the 88 students still there. Students now make up only 35 percent of Westmoreland’s population, Tuski said. Tuski said the complex offers several amenities that help make the rent reasonable, including free expanded basic cable and an on-site fitness center and tanning room.
“We feel for what we are offering to our tenants, our prices are right in line,” she said.
Journalism major Echo Lappin said in an e-mail that her apartment “is pretty nice” and that the rent is fair compared to other places in Eugene.
David Watson, who describes himself as one of the most vocal opponents of the Westmoreland sale, graduated from the University in June. He and his family moved into Westmoreland in February of 2003 and chose to remain living in an “unimproved” two-bedroom unit after the sale. He said that while his rent did get bumped up by about $50, Bell has been generous in keeping his rate low.
Tuski said the laundry facilities are also cheaper than some other apartment buildings. She said the prices were raised by $.50 per load and that the washing machines were changed to top-loading models because those are more durable and harder to damage than the front-loading models.
An anonymous web comment on an Emerald article about the Westmoreland sale said that the grounds maintenance quality had declined.
“Landscaping is going to the dogs with nothing more than mowing occurring on a site which is renowned for its variety of trees, rhodies, azaleas and all other manner of landscaping plants,” the post said.
Li, said that in the last few months before the sale, the landscaping went downhill. She said she feels the new management is doing a better job at landscaping than the University.
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