Bicycle transportation: Broken trust and a dream that fell apart

For decades, a building in Eugene’s Whiteaker neighborhood served as a hub for advocates of a future with fewer cars and more bicycles. Now, it’s dividing the community it once brought together.

In 2021, the peach-colored building at 455 W. First Ave. was donated to Better Eugene-Springfield Transportation, known as BEST, a nonprofit focused on public transit, safe streets and better infrastructure for bicycles and pedestrians.

The organization pledged in business documents and news releases to act as a “community steward,” managing the building “in the public interest” and leasing space at a discount to nonprofits with similar missions.

Several groups and agencies, including staff with the city of Eugene, University of Oregon and Lane Transit District, united behind the idea. The building was renamed the Nexus for Eugene Sustainable Transportation, or the NEST. 

But by early 2025, the experiment unraveled. BEST’s board of directors listed the building for sale. Local food-relief nonprofit Burrito Brigade purchased it later that year. 

Now, one year after the sale, those involved are still reeling from the fallout. How the arrangement broke down — and who bears responsibility — remain points of deep disagreement. 

Leaders at Cascadia Mobility — the nonprofit that operates the city’s bike share program and that was the building’s primary tenant — say BEST broke its promise to steward the building and prioritized its own finances over community partnerships. 

“The road’s been ripped out from under us,” Cascadia Mobility executive director Brodie Hylton told Lookout Eugene-Springfield.

BEST sees it differently. The organization couldn’t afford to maintain the deteriorating building long-term, and months of unsuccessful lease negotiations with Cascadia Mobility left it no other option, said its executive director, Rob Zako. 

“We ended up spending more time trying to figure out how to be landlords and property managers than actually advancing our mission,” Zako said.

A building built on bikes

The modest, two-story building on the sun-soaked southwest corner of West First Avenue and Washington Street was built in 1950. The property is best described as aging but functional, with fading paint and peeling stickers adhered to its scuffed doors. The inside, a mix of warehouse and office space, is cavernous. Bicycles hang from the tall ceilings. 

The building was home to cycling advocacy in Eugene long before it was the NEST.

In the early 1990s, architect Tom Bowerman, a local landowner and the son of Nike co-founder Bill Bowerman, bought the building out of foreclosure for roughly $100,000. He was passionate about reducing dependence on cars and wanted it to house the work of cycling activist Jan VanderTuin, who had recently moved to Eugene to build workbikes for hauling.

There, VanderTuin opened the Center for Appropriate Transport, known as CAT, a pioneering nonprofit that functioned as a multiuse hub for all things cycling, including a workshop, training center and Oregon Cycling, a now-shuttered statewide monthly magazine. 

CAT dissolved during the COVID-19 pandemic, and eventually VanderTuin, who had been living in the building, moved out. Eager to get the building off his hands, Bowerman approached the cycling community in 2021 in search of a new owner with a similar mission.

Cascadia Mobility had just secured a contract with the city to run its PeaceHealth Rides bike share program, in partnership with the city, UO and LTD. The budding operation was looking for a new home, but was living “hand-to-mouth” and not in a position to accept the building donation, Hylton said. 

But BEST — a nonprofit originally launched as a campaign to extend EmX bus service to west Eugene — had by that time established itself as a prominent local advocate for nonautomobile transportation.

Zako was friends with Bowerman, and volunteered to accept the building donation with the vision of continuing CAT’s mission, but with multiple organizations instead of one. 

Cascadia Mobility agreed to become the NEST’s primary tenant with the blessing of bike share program partners, and signed a memorandum of understanding, which amounted to a handshake agreement. BEST’s board expected it to be a “turnkey operation,” Zako said.

“At the time, it felt like it was a no-lose proposition,” Zako said. “It felt like we could help the community in some way, we could bring in some revenue that would be more than expenses, and it would be a win-win. The reality very quickly proved to be different.”

Cracks begin to form

The building faced years of deferred maintenance. Its roof was leaking, the electrical system was dodgy, and at one point, it housed a squirrel den. 

The building also lacked clear divisions of space, which made it difficult for BEST to attract tenants and lease out the entire space. Tenants used butcher tape on the floor as dividers, while significant portions of the building sat vacant. 

Cascadia Mobility primarily shared the building with Pedalers Express, a cycling delivery service that operated in the space even before BEST took it over. Local nonprofit bike shop Shift Community Cycles, which runs programs like Free Bikes 4 Kidz, explored moving in but ultimately decided it wasn’t a “good fit,” executive director Kendsie Channing said. 

BEST, which promised in an early press release to “transform the space,” made some fixes, including security upgrades, a door replacement and electrical system improvements. 

Larger renovations to address deferred maintenance and make the space more suitable for multiple tenants were estimated to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, which would have required capital fundraising. And routine upkeep soon began to feel “endless,” Zako said. 

“We never had a plan to do all that work,” he said. “The money we were taking in was going out just as fast just to keep up with things going wrong with the building.”

BEST planned to set aside funds monthly for repairs — budgeting up to $120,000 over five years — while evaluating whether to pursue a larger capital campaign. Cascadia Mobility agreed to pay BEST a few hundred dollars every month in addition to rent to fund about $25,000 in improvements over five years.

But after cycling through a few lease agreements with BEST, Hylton hadn’t seen those repairs materialize, and as Cascadia Mobility’s current lease neared expiration, he was becoming frustrated by the building’s condition. Early promises of discounted rent had also never come to fruition, he added.

“We still have black mold, we still have a roof that leaks, and meanwhile, they’re paying their staff, not making the needed investments, not keeping their promises,” Hylton said. “I would sort of complain about that, and they would say, ‘Well, we can’t get the money to do those things.’”

Cascadia Mobility paid $1 per square foot in rent, at that point about $5,000 per month, which Hylton and several others said was close to market rate, given the building’s disrepair.

Cascadia Mobility wanted BEST to commit to renovations before renewing its lease, but BEST felt that it could only do so — and borrow money or fundraise for a capital campaign — if Cascadia Mobility rented a larger portion of building space and signed a longer-term lease. 

The organizations went back-and-forth for months over the dispute. The two sides were at an impasse, and BEST’s board began to consider selling the building. 

“We didn’t see there’s a demand for the space as it was,” Zako said. “We didn’t see it made sense to invest in it.”

The vision crumbles

In February 2025, BEST’s board of directors unanimously voted to list the building for sale. Zako wrote in an email to NEST tenants that BEST was “open to all offers,” particularly from another nonprofit in the active transportation community that could extend current leases. 

In April, the organization got an offer from nonprofit Burrito Brigade. Shortly after, BEST board member Tiffany Edwards called an in-person meeting between Hylton, Zako, Bowerman, UO, the city and other NEST stakeholders to hash out the building’s future. 

Given its history as a local hub for noncar transportation, there were suggestions of forming a community land trust or donating the building to another mission-driven nonprofit. 

At the meeting, Bowerman, the building’s original owner, gave Zako and his board his blessing to do what they felt was right. 

“The gift was to BEST and it came with no strings attached,” Bowerman told Lookout, recalling his remarks at the meeting.

Two former board members told Lookout they supported the decision to sell, because the building had become a financial burden and distraction from the organization’s mission. 

“I think we had ideas about what could be done with that building, and I don’t think they were bad ideas,” said former board member Laura Sedwick. “But at the end of the day, there wasn’t the manpower on that board to do our regular work and to do that.” 

There was nothing legally binding that Cascadia Mobility could do to change the outcome, which Hylton described as a breach of trust.

BEST lacked the patience to bring to life the vision it had initially promised for the NEST, he said, and in the process, disregarded the building’s historical and sentimental value to the cycling community.

“There are two versions of the truth,” Hylton said. “It is true that BEST owns that building free and clear, and we have no other legal rights to it. But it is also true that promises were made and failed.”

More money, more problems

The sale with Burrito Brigade closed in September 2025 for $625,000. BEST and its board, as well as Bowerman, were pleased to sell the building to another local nonprofit. Leaders at Burrito Brigade, for its part, felt overwhelmed. 

Jennifer Denson, its executive director, said the organization has already spent $75,000 fixing the roof and is trying to raise another $200,000 to construct a kitchen.

Burrito Brigade was happy to find a building in the Whiteaker — a neighborhood where the nonprofit has early roots — that had enough warehouse space for its growing operations. But she said the final sale price was a disappointment because BEST got the building for free and it needed extensive improvements.

“We were going to make this a good deal for both parties, and I don’t feel like that was what had happened,” Denson said. “You just profited that much money off of another nonprofit, when it’s supposed to be we’re on equal playing fields.”

BEST has put the proceeds from the sale in a money market account earning 3.5% interest, what Zako described as a lockbox for the “one-time asset.” 

The organization’s board will determine how to use the funds through a five-year strategic planning process launching “later this year,” Zako said. He couldn’t provide a specific month, though he said the board is planning a June retreat that will “frame expectations.” (Zako wrote BEST was “beginning work” on the strategic plan in a March 2025 email.) 

Zako said BEST has a broad portfolio — advocating for street safety improvements, like those for Highway 99 and River Road, shaping the future of bike share and LTD and lobbying the Legislature — and “everything’s on the table.” 

“We’re concerned about the entire range of things here,” Zako said. “A strategic plan is going to look at lots of needs, look at how we are positioned to make the greatest impact, what we can do with our resources and make the best decision we can.”

The NEST’s leases with Cascadia Mobility and Pedalers Express, the two remaining tenants in the building, expired in June. The organizations now rent building space from Burrito Brigade month-to-month, until Burrito Brigade fundraises enough to begin construction, hopefully by late 2026, and the other nonprofits find new homes. 

Some bike share stakeholders feel BEST should give a portion of the sale proceeds to Cascadia Mobility for relocation costs, as an olive branch and demonstration of the NEST’s shared vision. Zako, on behalf of BEST and its board, refused. 

“It’s not our responsibility to solve their problem for them,” Zako told Lookout.

Shane Rhodes, a transportation planning official for the city long involved in the NEST arrangement, expressed his disappointment about that decision in an April 2025 email about BEST’s plan to sell the building that was sent to more than 20 bike share stakeholders.

“BEST has decided that the building is solely their asset and that selling it is in the best interest of their nonprofit,” he wrote. “We find this a disappointing turn of events, given the original agreement and understanding around the donation of the building and the communal vision for the NEST.” 

Edwards, who stepped down from BEST’s board before the sale closed, said she urged the organization to return funds from the sale to the active transportation community, potentially in the form of community grants.

“I became kind of disappointed with the whole process,” Edwards said. 

Over the last year, communication between BEST and Cascadia Mobility has gone from icy to frozen. But Edwards hopes to break the radio silence by soon brokering a meeting between those involved to hopefully mend fractured relationships. 

“There’s a very big divide between the community right now with regards to how that all went down,” Edwards said. 

Carl Yeh and Marianne Nolte, the interim and former presidents of the BEST board of directors, did not return requests for comment. 

The future of bike share

Though the timeline is murky, Cascadia Mobility, which maintains and tracks Eugene’s 450 PeaceHealth Rides bicycles out of 455 W. First Ave., will have to relocate — a grim reality for its staff.

The nonprofit has made the space its home, meticulously organizing work benches and storage spaces to suit its needs. Trinkets left behind in bicycle baskets, like Pokemon and basketball trading cards, decorate the shelves. A custom-made decal of Disney’s Launchpad McQuack riding a PeaceHealth bike adorns the floor. 

“I’m really heartbroken to have to peel that up someday,” said Cascadia Mobility operations director Al Hongo. “We’ve really been able to achieve a lot with this space, and it’s heartbreaking to see that come to a close prematurely based on lies and abuse of trust.”

Cascadia Mobility and Shift Community Cycles have discussed moving into a new space together, as both organizations are searching for a permanent home, but nothing has been decided. Meanwhile, the city of Eugene, UO and LTD, which help finance the bike share program, are all invested in Cascadia Mobility’s relocation. 

UO transportation services director Dave Reesor said he worries about the nonprofit’s ability to find a suitable new home because it needs a blend of warehouse and office space. 

The university, which generates roughly 75% of the bike share’s ridership, is conducting a parking garage feasibility study on the west side of campus. Reesor has suggested adding in a space for Cascadia Mobility, but that wouldn’t happen for five years at the earliest, he said.

“I’m very concerned about their operations hitting a wall in terms of slowing down relocation and redistribution of bikes,” Reesor said. “The worst-case scenario is that they just don’t have any space, and then they are without a home, which means you don’t have bike share.”

The city — via Rhodes, the city transportation planning official — has been working with Cascadia Mobility to find a new location for the program since learning of the possible sale a year ago, public works public affairs manager Marion Suitor Barnes told Lookout. 

“There is no funding identified for this transition to a new space; however, we hope to work with our active transportation partners to find a resolution,” she wrote in an email. 

LTD spokesperson Anni Katz said “decisions about relocation costs remain between the organizations involved.”

The agency is a long-term supporter of bike share and always aims to work with multiple partners to support access and mobility for all, she said. 

Three decades have passed since Bowerman first bought 455 W. First Ave. to create a shared cycling hub in Eugene. Community leaders that the building once brought together now avoid being in the same room.

“There are some lessons here for me, too,” Bowerman said. “You think you’re going to do something good for the community, and it doesn’t work out the way that you want.”