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A project consultation submitted to the city calls for preserving and restoring the historic exterior of the 95-year-old steam plant while gutting much of the interior to accommodate hospitality and restaurant uses.
Plans to redevelop the former Eugene Water & Electric Board steam plant are finally coming into focus.
DeChase Miksis Development has long intended to redevelop the 95-year-old steam plant along the Willamette River into a mixed-use center, but a project consultation submitted to the city last week offers the most detailed look yet at its plans for the 28,000 square-foot site at 701 Annie Mims Lane.
The developers want to turn the steam plant into a five-story hotel with public space on the ground floor and outdoor space adjacent to the Willamette River. The ground floor could see a restaurant, bar, lounge, fitness areas or house other commercial tenants, the documents state.
Mark Miksis, managing partner with deChase Miksis, said the firm signed a development agreement with the city Jan. 1, 2026, and hopes to break ground by the end of 2027.
Though many details are still being determined, including the project’s name, he broadly described the redevelopment as a “boutique hotel” with the ground-floor public space.
“We’re in feasibility right now, so a lot of that’s being investigated,” Miksis said in an interview. “It’ll be complementary uses to a hotel, but we don’t have a lot of exact data on the project. We’re working on a market study right now.”
The main part of the project — the lower four stories and basement — would fit within the existing steam plant’s footprint. Developers want to retain and restore the plant’s exterior walls and steel windows, but gut much of the interior to accommodate new uses.
The industrial deco-style building was built in 1931. Its three steam boilers and turbines generated backup electricity for Eugene’s water system and, beginning in 1962, heated downtown businesses. EWEB decommissioned the plant in 2012 and it has sat vacant since, accumulating graffiti and falling into disrepair.
Miksis said the development team is in the process of listing the building on the National Register of Historic Places and registering it with the National Park Service for historic preservation.
“We’re investigating what that entails right now as well,” Miksis said. “That will have some limitations on what we can do to the exterior of the building. We’ll have to maintain the original character and windows for the project.”
Developers want to build a fifth 18,000-square-foot floor to sit atop the building, set back from the existing roofline. The documents state that portions of the roof would be available for access. The total building would be about 65 feet tall.
Outside of the building, there could be space with covered seating described in documents as a “riverfront plaza,” along with bicycle and vehicle parking. The city has said it will work with developers to find 125 potential off-site parking spaces.
Miksis declined to state the budget for the project, saying a market study examining potential hotel-generated revenue will determine the cost. City staff estimated the price of the steam plant redevelopment at $60 million in 2024.
The steam plant is the easternmost project in the city’s ambitious Riverfront District redevelopment, the planned transformation of the 16-acre property fronting the Willamette River into hundreds of units of housing and commercial spaces. Many of the district’s more expensive proposed projects, like the steam plant redevelopment, are behind schedule due to financial headwinds.
The developers first shared proposals for the steam plant redevelopment in 2018, and have twice received urban renewal funds from the city — in 2022 and 2024 — to get it off the ground. Miksis indicated that developers plan to approach the city for more funding to “bridge the gap that exists on bringing a project like this to market.”
“A lot of the same challenges that have existed for a while continue today,” Miksis said. “High cost of capital, interest rates are continuing to go up. Construction costs have escalated consistently year after year since we won this project, so that’s continued to put pressure on the project.”
He said his team has committed to paying construction workers in line with Oregon’s prevailing wages, the pay and benefit rates set for government-funded public works projects, which is typically higher than private-sector wages. The added costs of prevailing wages have hampered the development of market-rate housing projects elsewhere in the Riverfront District.
“That does put a cost burden on the project, but it’s one that we’re working on trying to resolve,” he said. “We’ll know more in the upcoming months whether we can overcome that hurdle.”
