QuickTake:

The Obie Companies complex on Fifth Avenue would have 124 housing units above retail spaces and a courtyard. City officials in April granted the project a 10-year exemption on new property taxes.

Developers of a residential and retail development planned for Eugene’s downtown Market District have asked the city for initial approvals and hope to start construction in the first quarter of 2026.

Station House is a planned development with about 124 units at Fifth Avenue and Oak Street. Developers are asking the city for approvals necessary to complete the work. The development, overseen by Eugene-based Obie Companies, will be on the north side of Fifth Avenue on 2.15 acres. The site is mainly a parking lot with a vacant retail building that will be demolished.

“Everything being equal, at the beginning of next year, we’ll be breaking ground there and creating a place that’s very special indeed,” Brian Obie, president and CEO of Obie Companies said in an interview with Lookout Eugene-Springfield. “Our fervent hope would be that it would be in the first quarter of 2026.”

Construction would take about 20 months, Obie said, putting Station House on track to open in late 2027.

Station House already has buy-in from city officials. The Eugene City Council approved a 10-year property tax exemption in April for the project. It will exempt the developer from paying higher property taxes that would be assessed as the property is improved. 

Eugene City Council approves 10-year tax exemption for downtown apartment development 

The $62 million project, when finished, will have about 163,000 square feet of space with a combination of studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom units, city records for the tax incentives show. The ground floor of the six-story building will have more than 7,100 square feet of retail space.

Obie Companies has a record of working on other high-profile downtown projects, including the 5th Street Public Market, Inn at the 5th and the Gordon Lofts.

Since the April approval, city records show the developer is working on plans and asking city officials to consider its requests. SERA Architects, representing Obie, seeks a variety of adjustments from the city for the project, such as a request for a 15- to 20-foot setback from the front property line for a pedestrian courtyard. The application’s details offer insights into the plan envisioned for the development.

The ground floor will have a minimum ceiling height of 12 feet, “creating open and vital commercial retail spaces.”

The application notes that the project is designed to complement the historic Market District along Fifth Avenue. For example, the Gordon Hotel and Lofts project and the 5th Street Public Market developments also have designs that welcome pedestrians into courtyards and alleys, the application says.

“The courtyard is an outdoor room that has pedestrian amenities including planter boxes and outdoor seating and has canopies for pedestrian weather protection,” the application says. “A large arched window aligned with Oak Street announces the main entry to the Station House building.”

The development also will require a separate building permit.

Ben Botkin covers politics and policy in Lane County. He has worked as a journalist since 2003, most recently at the Oregon Capital Chronicle, where he covered justice, health and human services and documented regional efforts to combat fentanyl addiction. Botkin has worked in statehouses in Idaho, Nevada, Oklahoma and, of course, Oregon. When he's not working, you'll find him road tripping across the West, hiking or surfing along the Oregon Coast.