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QuickTake:
Big developments underway near Alder and 13th have reduced foot traffic and closed roads and parking spots. Now, small shops like the Korean eatery Cluckin Dog are fighting to keep their doors open.
Sai Pituk can’t see her business from Alder Street anymore.
For several months, building materials have been stacked just steps from the entrance of her Eugene eatery, Cluckin Dog, so that it can’t be seen from across the street.
Most days, the air is filled with the sounds of clanging metal, high-pitched humming, rapid hammering, backup beeping and rumbling diesel engines.
Fences line the sidewalks on Alder Street, which is partially closed between 12th and 13th avenues, leading to a steep decline in foot traffic and available parking. Upward of 35 parking spaces are closed to the public due to construction in the area.
Since last fall, Cluckin Dog and its neighboring shops have been in the shadows of concurrent, multiyear development projects, struggling to attract customers amid the construction. The fallout has city officials grappling with how to uphold private property rights while lessening the collateral damage to nearby businesses and residents.
The projects comprise a 15-story residential complex called Eugene Chapter 2; a five-story housing complex called The Mark that will be on the grounds of the recently demolished PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center, University District; and a 14-story mixed-use building called The Ellis that will include residential apartments and commercial/retail space and parking.
Combined, the three buildings will add 2,117 bedrooms to Eugene. They are all a short walk from Cluckin Dog.
Pituk is not sure she can weather the sharp decline in sales until the fall of 2027, when construction for the complexes is expected to be completed.
“We’re not opposed to change, but what we’re asking for is the opportunity to survive two years of construction,” Pituk said. “We’re hoping the city, university, community, anybody, can help us survive two years. It’s a long time to ask us to shoulder the burden of construction projects.”
Lost revenue ‘overnight’
Last December, about a week after construction for Eugene Chapter 2 began, Pituk said sales for Cluckin Dog dropped by more than 80%, going from about $1,700 in sales daily to just $250. It’s something the seasoned restaurateur, who has opened six restaurants, had never experienced before.
“If people aren’t happy with your food, you normally get a slow decline,” she said. “But for us it literally was overnight. That doesn’t happen because people don’t like your food.”
The revenue loss has been so severe that Pituk launched a fundraiser July 1 to help cover overhead costs and secure enough cash flow through the slower summer months. She fell behind on rent earlier this year and is still catching up.
Her casual eatery has plenty of seating, but without parking, fewer people are opting to dine in. Pituk said delivery drivers are declining orders in her area, too.
“They don’t want to walk two blocks to make a couple bucks,” she said. “There’s nowhere to park.”
The city of Eugene temporarily changed three metered spots around the corner into commercial parking, which allows for quick pickup orders, but Pituk said that’s not enough for her eatery or her neighboring businesses.
‘Very siloed’ approval process
Pituk knew construction was coming, but she didn’t realize the scale until she showed up to Cluckin Dog one morning in December and suddenly couldn’t park out front.
“I definitely didn’t know they were going to take away the parking spots and scaffold my restaurant,” she said. “You literally can’t see Cluckin Dog or Izakaya Jinsei.”
When the city of Eugene issues right-of-way permits for construction companies to close roads and other public access points, it must inform nearby businesses and residents via written notice. Usually, two notices are mailed out in the weeks leading up to the start date. Each notice includes a project plan, location, closure advisories, duration and contact information for questions and concerns.
Small business owners on Alder Street told Lookout Eugene-Springfield mailed notices were not enough to underscore the potential impacts of these projects. Some overlooked the notices as junk mail or for a far less disruptive project, such as tree removal.
“Any city notification looks almost exactly the same, if you don’t actually read it,” said Josh Zweifler, the owner of Sy’s New York Pizza, a few doors down from Cluckin Dog. “So in general, people just throw those things away. Like I’m sure I have plenty of them that I missed just because I tell staff to throw junk mail away.”
When Michael Bradley, the city of Eugene’s business outreach liaison, started hearing from business owners on Alder Street last October about the construction impacts, he got one question a lot:
“How could the city allow this?”
For cases such as this — when the proposals comply with the property’s zoning classification, the plan reviews are approved and permit fees are paid — property owners have the legal right to develop, even if such projects have unintended consequences, Bradley said. There is no requirement for public approval or even comment.
Bradley called it “unusual” for three major construction projects to be underway simultaneously and so close to one another.
“When the [city staff] review these permits, they review them very specifically, in a very siloed way,” Bradley said. “It has really nothing to do with the lot next door.”
Part of it also has to do with start times: Two projects were issued building permits 18 months apart, The Ellis in June 2024 and Eugene Chapter 2 in December 2025. Construction for Chapter 2 started immediately, but work on The Ellis didn’t begin in earnest until last October, leading to overlap. Building permits for The Mark were issued in July, shortly after the PeaceHealth building was demolished.
For Bradley and other city staff, the Alder Street fallout, among other comparable situations in Eugene, has made them rethink the way they alert residents and business owners about closures, construction and other major impacts within the private sector.
“We need something that’s better than what we’re doing,” Bradley said. “We can do a much better job of identifying these unique circumstances and then proactively communicating with folks who are going to be impacted.”
‘Nobody’s priority except for ours’
Lately, Zweifler has been hearing the same story from longtime customers of Sy’s.
They’ll look across Alder Street at the now-razed grounds of PeaceHealth Sacred Medical Center and tell him, “I was born right there, and while I was being born, my dad got Sy’s pizza and brought it back to the hospital.”
He’s trying to keep the nostalgia of Sy’s New York Pizza, a Eugene institution he took over in 2024, alive. It’s one of the oldest establishments on the block — feeding hungry, studious and drunk students since 1978.
He’s noticed fewer students and residents walking down Alder Street since construction began.
Zweifler said the drop in foot traffic is particularly devastating for newer businesses such as Cluckin Dog, which opened in December 2023.
“If you don’t know [a business] is there, you’re not going to know they’re there unless someone tells you, which is really, really hard,” Zweifler said.
Echoing Zweifler, Pituk said she doesn’t yet have the strong, steady customer base as some of her more veteran neighbors, including Sy’s.
The construction companies, Pituk and Zweifler said, have been accommodating and communicative, letting owners park in areas reserved for crews and equipment, even hanging signage on their fences that advertise the businesses.
The city of Eugene also designed colorful signs noting that the block is open for business. It posted a call to support the Alder Street stores on Instagram back in December.
But business owners like Zweifler and Pituk said they have, for the most part, stopped attending local business meetings and repeating their requests for help, opting instead to go through their own channels.
Everyone is busy in their own departments and roles and besides, Zweifler said, “It’s nobody’s priority except for ours.”
‘Who do we talk to?’
As Eugene’s business outreach liaison, Bradley acts as a connector between Eugene’s business community and the city’s various departments, making sure business owners have the right resources and information about city initiatives.
Since joining the city of Eugene’s economic development division in 2023, he’s talked to more than 600 business owners about city-led capital projects that may impact them, such as repaving streets and sidewalks.
Bradley goes door-to-door, talking to people about the scale and timeline of these public projects. Once he leaves, they understand the impacts, can voice their concerns and have a way to contact Bradley and the site coordinator.
“They have someone to call immediately,” Bradley said.
It’s part of the Business Access Coordination Program, which the city launched a few years ago after officials noticed a pattern of people not having enough information or understanding about the impacts of city projects and how the city was reacting to concerns instead of having a proactive approach.
The idea is that while the city can’t stop legal construction projects, it can make small changes to ease the burden on neighboring businesses and residents. Based on feedback, that could mean moving a work site back several feet to limit dust and noise, or leaving a parking spot open for delivery drivers.
“It’s a lot easier to make those changes before those things [work sites] are actually in place,” Bradley said.
The program’s proactive, face-to-face approach has made a big difference. Bradley believes it can be replicated for the private sector.
In fact, Eugene is hiring a development liaison who could help lead such a program, acting as Bradley’s private-sector counterpart. While Bradley works with public works project managers to support impacted businesses, the development liaison would do the same for business owners amid private developments such as The Ellis, Eugene Chapter 2 and The Mark.
Instead of mailed notices, they too would go door-to-door, talking to people like Pituk and Zweifler. The concessions could also be similar, such as working with site coordinators to open up a few parking spaces or reschedule certain construction activities to a less busy time.
If there is another Alder Street scenario in the future, the city wants to be prepared, even if such outreach isn’t required by law.
“[The development liaison] will have a really good eye at being able to de-silo some of the way that we look at [development] decisions,” Bradley said. “They’ll work with our economic development office and myself to say, ‘Hey, I see this coming down the road in a few years. We’re going to talk to these businesses because this is going to have a huge impact on them.’”
Supporting the 1200 block
For now, after seven anxiety-riddled months, Pituk shows up to Cluckin Dog every day while looking for new ways to connect with the community, such as vending at the recent Oregon Asian Celebration in Eugene.
As a first-generation American and a U.S. Army veteran, who also has worked 20 years in the restaurant industry, Pituk is fighting to keep her doors open — especially for university students, many of whom call Pituk their “college mom.”
She’s asking people to stop by and support Cluckin Dog, Sy’s and other businesses on the 1200 block of Alder Street: Sweet Basil Express, Spring House, Dudley’s Kampus Barber Shop, Apothca, Bree’s Way, Izakaya Jinsei.
It’s one of the most culinarily diverse blocks in Eugene, where you can find New York-style pizza, Thai, Korean, Japanese and Chinese within 100 feet.
Pituk’s eatery specializes in Asian street foods, from crispy-chewy Korean corn dogs and gochujang-glazed fried chicken to lesser known delights like salted plum lemonade and a sliced beef belly dish called gyudon.
“I like to do foods you can’t find around here,” Pituk said. “We’re so different. We deserve a space here.”
