City officials are hoping to turn downtown Eugene into an active, inviting and economically strong area, and, if they invest the city’s money wisely, they say they may soon have just that.
The Business Loan Program and the Downtown Revitalization Loan Program are two city programs designed to give the Eugene economy an edge in tough economic times and promote business growth within the city’s core, City Loan Analyst Denny Braud said.
“We’re trying to impact how they develop and where they develop,” Braud said of the programs’ effects on area businesses.
Braud, who oversees the two programs, said the success rate of the city loan programs has been high and is only expected to increase, “despite some initial failings.”
The Dive Bar & Grill was one of those initial failings. The restaurant opened in January 2004 at 844 Olive St. with the help of a downtown development fund similar to the city’s current loan programs, but went out of business after a few months.
Braud said the Dive’s failed business venture did not pose a problem for the city because the $75,000 loan will still be repaid and another business opened at the location within months.
The Rogue Ales Eugene City Brewery opened its doors in October, and the Northwest-based brewing company has assumed the city loan used to open the Dive.
Mike West, who owned and operated the Dive, has operated businesses in Eugene for decades, notably West Bros. BBQ downtown, and said he closed the Dive as a business strategy and is focusing on other projects in Central Oregon.
West would not comment on downtown Eugene’s business receptiveness, but said he has been in Eugene since 1972 and the downtown area has always had problems with local business sustainability.
“My business decision speaks for itself,” West said. “We still have a lot of challenges in our city’s core.”
Rogue Ales co-founder Jack Joyce said his company had been looking to open a brew pub in Eugene for some time and jumped at the opportunity to assume responsibility for West’s city loan and open the new brewery.
“We were more than ready and willing and able to go,” Joyce said. “The downtown people are really very cooperative and supportive
of business.”
Joyce said he would have opened the brewery with or without the aid of a city loan program, but said the program made the venture
more appealing.
Braud said the development fund used to finance what is now the Rogue brewery is similar in purpose to the Business Loan Program and the Downtown Revitalization Loan Program, which were reenacted after the urban renewal funds that had been used to build the new city library were replenished.
Braud said as long as funds are invested in the right projects, the loan program “can be a really extraordinary tool.” The interest rate on loans ensures the city does not lose money to inflation over time, but it is not seen as a way of generating additional city funds, Braud said.
“The interest rate is one of the things we can manipulate to make a project work,” Braud said.
A six-person loan advisory committee, with two city officials and four community members, allocates the funds. Braud said there are numerous projects in the works that use the loan programs and promise to bring an influx of business and people to the downtown area.

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