Program date: Thursday, Oct. 16, 2025
Air date: Monday, Oct. 20, 2025
From the City Club of Eugene:
This October, the City Club of Eugene and the Springfield City Club are teaming up to present a two-part program series exploring the future of riverfront development in our region.
This second program, organized by the City Club of Eugene, took place October 17 at noon at the WOW Hall and provides additional insights into riverfront development efforts on the other side of I-5.
This program features Will Dowdy, Community Development Director for the City of Eugene, who discusses the past, present, and future of the project.
Mr. Dowdy is joined by James L. Atkins, who focuses his remarks on the development of residential real estate along the waterfront, including some of the significant challenges that have emerged amidst the extraordinary opportunity of building a new neighborhood.
Speakers:
James Atkins is a real-estate development executive whose 30+ year career has been focused on neighborhood scale mixed-use redevelopment projects, many of which have involved remediation of brownfield environmental issues. His leadership and technical expertise have helped create over 10,000 new housing units of all types in markets from Downtown Los Angeles to South Waterfront Portland to Seattle’s new waterfront to now Eugene’s River District. Mr. Atkins is also Registered Civil Engineer in Virginia and Washington (B.S. Civil Engineering, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, CA, 1988). He practiced for over 10 years as a consulting engineer and construction project manager with several regional land use planning, engineering and construction firms in the Pacific Northwest and California before turning his career to neighborhood development. Today, Mr. Atkins and his wife, Amy, split their time between their River District apartment here in Eugene and Oro Valley, Arizona.
Will Dowdy is the Community Development Director for the City of Eugene. He started working for the city in 2014 and his work includes supporting the City’s efforts in economic development, Affordable Housing, downtown placemaking, the Downtown Riverfront redevelopment, and the City’s Mapping Value project. Will received a Master of Architecture and Master of Architectural Design & Urbanism degrees at the University of Notre Dame. Prior to his time at the city, he worked in the private sector, consulting on projects in urban design and development around the country.
About the City Club of Eugene:
The mission of the City Club of Eugene is to build community vision through open inquiry. The Club explores a wide range of significant local, state, and national issues and helps to formulate new approaches and solutions to problems. Membership is open to all, and Club members have a direct influence on public policy by discussing issues of concern with elected officials and other policy makers.
The City Club’s mailing address is PO Box 12084, Eugene, OR 97440, and its website is cityclubofeugene.org.