A vacant historic building near downtown Eugene could become a hotel and arts space. The City Council will get an update on the steam plant project at its Monday work session.
The City Council, in its capacity as Urban Renewal Agency, owns the former steam plant.
Amanda D’Souza is a Business Development Analyst with the city. She says the developers have had to readjust their proposal for the building due to market changes and the pandemic.
“They’re envisioning turning the building into a new community destination that will connect people with downtown and the river,” D’Souza said. “You can’t build that close to the river now. And so they definitely want to take advantage of the building’s location.”
D’Souza said the plan is to have an arts space on the lower level and hotel rooms above. But it’s complex.
“It’s much easier to build a brand new building from the ground up,” she said. “But to work with a building that wasn’t designed to be a hotel or really to do anything other than generate steam and energy is going to be really complicated.”
The cost is also high-- $56 million. But, D’Souza says there’s a lot of excitement about the project. Local entrepreneurs Mark Miksis and Mark Frohnmayer are the project developers. Their corporation is called Dream Plant LLC.
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