KWG

The city of Eugene withheld the purchase options list for property downtown until after Eugene Weekly went to press with its last issue before the election on Measure 20-134. The list now shows that the city’s land purchase costs have increased from earlier estimates of about $16 million to about $19 million now. The purchase prices average about double the real market value the Lane County Tax assessor has set for the properties. The city has offered some owners up to four times the real market value. For the Bradfords building and adjacent one-eighth-block parking lot owned by Diamond Parking Inc., the city purchase option would trade a city parking lot at 12th and Oak that’s twice as large and pay $290,360 in cash.

For the complete updated Broadway options list, see the end of the updated news story here.

Beam development, the Portland firm that has proposed a local-focused historic restoration of the Center Court and Washburne buildings in downtown Eugene has won kudos for a similar project in its home town.
As part of its "Best of Portland" issue, the alternative newspaper Willamette Week praised Beam principal Bradley Malsin’s Central Eastside project as "the epicenter of Portland's radiant future" with the "creative class."
Here’s WW:

Best Nerve Center of Portland's Future
Alberta is to tacos what Mississippi Avenue is to being overrated and the Central Eastside is to being the epicenter of Portland's radiant future. Brad Malsin may have lost his 2005 bid to spearhead the Portland Development Commission's Burnside Bridgehead project, but that hasn't stopped him from developing 300,000 square feet of creative office space right down the street in the old B&O building—all before Opus, the PDC's chosen developer, has managed to lift even a shovelful of dirt. With fashion designers, architects and environmental engineers set to move in, Malsin's tenant roster is a creative class demographer's wet dream. "I want a place where young people and businesses can grow their dreams," he says. Hell, if the city can't do it, send Malsin.
http://www.wweek.com/editorial/3337/9270/

Malsin’s Beam is also in competition with some of the Opus people here. KWG includes people who’ve worked for and with Opus on the Bridgehead and other projects. In Eugene, the city council voted to involve both KWG and Beam in proposed downtown redevelopment involving about $50 million in public subsidies.
City Manager Dennis Taylor said Beam had agreed to work together with KWG, perhaps giving KWG control over choosing tenants for the ground floors.
But Malsin said he’ll keep an independent, community-oriented focus for his project. "We have a different way of seeing the world," he said of KWG. "We don't do the shopping mall kind of deals."
Here’s the EW archive story: http://www.eugeneweekly.com/2007/05/31/news.html
An earlier cover story on the downtown proposals is at: http://www.eugeneweekly.com/2007/04/12/coverstory.html
Here’s a look at what Beam proposed for Eugene’s Center Court:

For those wanting to get involved in the big and expensive decision of what’s best for Eugene’s downtown here’s two public events tonight and tomorrow:

West Broadway Public Information Event
August 3rd Friday 5:30-8:00 pm
Broadway Plaza
(Willamette St & Broadway,
Downtown)

West Broadway Public Workshop
August 4th Saturday 9:00 am - Noon Atrium Lobby, Atrium
Building, 10th Ave & Olive St

For a ton more information from the city’s website surf to:
http://www.eugene-or.gov/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=231&PageID=3662...