QuickTake:

The 75-unit Lincoln Commons would be built as affordable housing, intended for people making 60% or less than the local median income.

A developer is seeking the city’s permission to build a four-story affordable housing complex at Fifth Avenue and Lincoln Street, land that’s currently a parking lot.

Red Apple Square LLC wants to develop a project called Lincoln Commons, a 75-unit apartment complex on a 0.55-acre parcel next door to PLAY Eugene.

If the city approves the application, filed earlier this month, the building would include 20 studios, 49 one-bedrooms and six two-bedroom units.

Location of the proposed affordable housing complex.

The development is located in the S-W Whiteaker Special Area Zone, which means it falls under certain land-use rules established to encourage the mixed-use zone’s “economic vitality” while also allowing for residential dwellings.

The developer is asking the city to loosen a few of the restrictions, such as increasing the maximum building height from 45 feet to 54 feet, reducing bike parking from one space per unit to 0.5 spaces per unit and increasing density.

“The proposed adjustments are necessary to help facilitate an affordable multiunit housing project,” Red Apple Square LLC’s application states. “These adjustments are needed to make the project both financially feasible and competitive for affordable housing funding.”

The application goes on to say that “time is of the essence” to obtain approval so that the applicant can move forward with applying for necessary funding through other agencies.

Steve Ochs, an affordable-housing consultant with the project, said the development is estimated to cost about $28 million. The team plans to apply for state funding through a 4% Low Income Housing Tax Credit and the Local Innovation and Fast Track Rental program, and from the city through its Affordable Housing Trust Fund.

Looking east from Lincoln Street at the site of the proposed apartment building. Credit: Isaac Wasserman / Lookout Eugene-Springfield / Catchlight / RFA

Gabe Flock, a principal planner consulting for the project, said developers expect the city to approve its application in mid-December. 

The project will then move onto site review, a process of between three to four months that includes public notice, and next, permitting. Developers hope to have a permit secured by November 2026, Flock said.

Red Apple Square LLC and the same group of investors are also developing Whiteaker Commons, a five-story affordable housing complex about a half-mile away, at 890 W. Fifth Ave. That project will cost about $39 million, Ochs said.

Both apartment buildings are in “underutilized properties” close to downtown and intended for people making 60% of the area median income or less, Flock said. That’s about $44,000 for a household of two in Eugene and about $55,000 for a household of four.

“The Whiteaker is an exciting neighborhood,” Flock said. “They have a keen eye towards the housing crisis and really providing new front doors.”

Red Apple Square LLC is owned by Roscoe Divine, a former University of Oregon track athlete turned Eugene real estate developer.

Grace Chinowsky graduated from The George Washington University with a degree in journalism. She served as editor-in-chief of the university’s independent student newspaper, The GW Hatchet, and interned at CNN and MSNBC. Grace covers Eugene’s city government and the University of Oregon.