Trying to add a payment method? You can do this on the 
QuickTake:
Councilors allowed developers an additional six months to close on the property. The project calls for a mix of affordable housing and market rate units, as well as ground floor retail.
The Eugene City Council agreed on Wednesday, Jan. 21, to give the developers of a downtown housing project more time to secure funding.
The city is working with developers to turn the site of the former Lane Community College downtown center at 1059 Willamette St. into multiunit housing. The city, which owns the property, was set to transfer it to the developers on Feb. 1.
But the city’s development programs manager requested the closing date be extended by six months. With the project struggling to acquire needed financing, the development team plans to request additional urban renewal funds from the city to support the project.
“These are very difficult projects, but they’re exactly the type of projects we need,” Councilor Alan Zelenka said during the work session. “There’s no such thing as unsubsidized affordable housing projects.”
The building is now vacant with a mural under its awning. It is across Willamette Street from the Lane Transit District Eugene Station.
Mixed-income housing
The city purchased the property from Lane Community College in 2020 using federal Community Development Block Grant dollars. The use of those funds requires that the site be used for housing and that at least half of the units be affordable to households earning up to 80% of the area median income, development programs manager Amanda D’Souza said during the meeting.
The city requested proposals to redevelop the site and received one proposal from a development team led by deChase Miksis and Edlen & Co. The plan calls for 133 units, with 68 affordable units and 65 units that would rent at market rate, without income qualifications.
The project would offer resident services from Cornerstone Community Housing, D’Souza said. The proposal sets aside 10 units for survivors of domestic violence in partnership with the Hope & Safety Alliance. The plan also includes a ground floor with what the city calls “incubator retail space” for entrepreneurs, using common spaces and below-market rents.
The request for proposals included $1.1 million in available public funding, which was a combination of downtown urban renewal funds and multiunit property tax exemption fees collected from Gordon Lofts, D’Souza said.
In 2024, the city approved an additional $740,000 in urban renewal funds for the project to help offset increases in construction costs and interest rates. She said the development team has received all permits needed to construct the building.
Funding gap
The total project cost is about $33 million, and the developers estimate a funding gap of $1 million to $3 million, D’Souza said. However, she said, if the city invests any more public funding into the project on top of what it’s already spent, it would likely trigger Oregon’s prevailing wage law, which mandates certain pay and benefit standards for construction workers on publicly funded projects. That would likely increase the funding gap by an additional $5 million to $7 million.
Councilors supported giving the development team more time, but they were hesitant to let the project stall for much longer.
“If we’re not able to get funding for this project as it’s conceived, it might be time to start thinking of a different way to approach this project,” Councilor Eliza Kashinsky said.
Councilor Mike Clark said he’d like a metric for evaluating the value of a subsidized project and what it’s likely to cost on a per-unit basis.
“How do we, from a policy perspective, evaluate what’s a good investment for us to continue with, versus time to, you know, fish or cut bait?” he said.
Councilor Jennifer Yeh said it would be challenging to start over and find a new developer, given the requirements for the site.
“I think having this building remain abandoned in its location is not doing our downtown any favors,” she said. “So if we need to consider some additional support to make it viable, I’m willing to consider it.”
D’Souza said the development team will gather updated construction costs and bring a request for more funds back to the City Council.