{"id":180265,"date":"2023-01-31T16:16:55","date_gmt":"2023-02-01T00:16:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eugeneweekly.com\/?p=188945"},"modified":"2023-01-31T16:16:55","modified_gmt":"2023-02-01T00:16:55","slug":"eugenes-city-hall-riviera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/extra.eugeneweekly.com\/index.php\/2023\/01\/31\/eugenes-city-hall-riviera\/","title":{"rendered":"Eugene\u2019s City Hall Riviera"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eugene is buying a riverfront home.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

At a Jan. 30 special meeting, the Eugene City Council voted 7-1, with Councilor Emily Semple dissenting, to purchase Eugene and Water Electric Board\u2019s former headquarters for $12 million. The 4.4 acre property is planned to house City Hall and city operations, and City Manager Sarah Medary said at the meeting that the city\u2019s change of heart in the space is due to the price being lower than new construction.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The purchase of the EWEB building near the Willamette River is a new chapter in a long story of Eugene\u2019s pathway to establishing a new City Hall. \u201cDiscussions of City Hall and what the community thought date back to 1909, so it\u2019s a pretty rich history,\u201d Medary said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The more recent City Hall history starts in 2014, when the city vacated \u2014\u00a0and tore down \u2014\u00a0777 Pearl Street. In 2016 when the city\u00a0 went out to bid for its new City Hall, Medary said, \u201cCouncil made a decision to wait a couple of days until after a conversation with the county, who had an idea for a potential different use of the land,\u201d so the two governments swapped the land.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The county wanted to build a new courthouse on the former City Hall property, a project whose funding was not approved by voters, and is currently used as a parking lot. <\/span>Meanwhile, the city of Eugene kept looking for a new solution for City Hall. According to previous reporting by <\/span>Eugene Weekly<\/span><\/i><\/a>, in 2015, the city learned that building a new City Hall would cost about $25 million. In January 2021,<\/span> the city announced that it would move into Lane Community College\u2019s downtown campus<\/span><\/a> on a three year lease. The city paid about $14,500 a month in the first year of the lease and about $16,000 a month in the second year of the lease. Beginning Dec. 1, the amount will increased 3 percent per year. The lease ends November 2023.<\/span><\/p>\n

The plans for the Farmer\u2019s Market Pavilion, Park Block and City Hall were meant to be near each other, Medary said at the Jan. 30 meeting. As late as early 2020, Medary said the city was about to undergo another round of City Hall planning. Then the pandemic hit, and Medary said she was new to the job and the city decided to pause on City Hall and focus on community response. \u201cNot be out there to generate revenue for a City Hall we didn\u2019t have during a time when businesses were closing down and people were asking for support,\u201d she added.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In late 2022, when the EWEB Board of Directors gave General Manager Frank Lawson the authority to sell the former headquarters, Medary said she called him to ask if the property was still available. \u201cIt makes a whole lot of sense for a future City Hall,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

According to Jan. 30 meeting materials, purchasing the former EWEB building allows the city to locate more of its operations into one building. That means vacating the fourth floor of the downtown library so the Eugene Public Library can expand. And the EWEB building has more space for public meetings compared to its current meeting space at LCC\u2019s downtown campus, as well as increased parking spots.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Medary said when the council first discussed the potential of purchasing EWEB\u2019s riverfront building in 2016, the cost of the purchase and the renovations was more of an issue then than it is today. She said the acreage of the property also opens the door for building a fire station nearby, housing and parking for the Riverfront Park.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The city has spent $50 million in connecting downtown to the river, Medary said, and having City Hall in the former EWEB building caps that plan.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

According to Jan. 30 meeting materials, the cost of the building is $12 million, $8 million of which is due by closing. The remaining balance is to be paid within five years of the closing date with a 4 percent annual interest rate.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThat allows us the flexibility to purchase the building and actually make the first round of investments that we need to happen to create the council chambers, do some basic things to do a first phase move in,\u201d Medary said, adding that city staff estimates puts the renovations in the $4 million to $5 million range. \u201cThis gives us flexibility without dipping into reserves.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The city is paying for this from an account that it has saved for City Hall for several years, which Medary said has dwindled over time.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Medary said the city is now in a due diligence period, during which it\u2019ll examine the property and plan its move-in. The city\u2019s closing date for the property is July 1.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Although the majority of council gushed at the development opportunities possible with the purchase of EWEB\u2019s former headquarters, Semple was disappointed in moving forward with the sale while a committee has been exploring ways to \u201csave downtown\u201d and reiterated that the city shouldn\u2019t have torn down its historic mid-century City Hall in 2014.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a beautiful building, but it wouldn\u2019t be my first choice,\u201d Semple said about the EWEB property. \u201cThe loss of employees downtown will impact businesses, daytime safety and activity.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eugene is buying a riverfront home.\u00a0 At a Jan. 30 special meeting, the Eugene City Council voted 7-1, with Councilor Emily Semple dissenting, to purchase \u2026 Continue reading\u00a0\u2192<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,101,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-180265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-ew-extra","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/extra.eugeneweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/extra.eugeneweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/extra.eugeneweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extra.eugeneweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extra.eugeneweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/extra.eugeneweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180265\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/extra.eugeneweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extra.eugeneweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extra.eugeneweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}