In late June 2023, thieves executed a rare and audacious act of copper pillage in Springfield.

They broke into the big, vacant former Royal Caribbean call center in Gateway and ripped out copious amounts of heavy-gauge copper electrical system wiring and copper HVAC piping throughout the building, police reports show.

In the process, they trashed the 160,000-square-foot facility’s electrical and HVAC systems so badly that much of it must be replaced, contractor records reviewed by Eugene Weekly show.

The damage is only now being repaired, and the bill will reach $6 million, the records show. This is the first time this remarkably destructive plundering has been publicly reported. The Weekly only recently unearthed the information.

The damage is another twist in the saga of the prominent and long-empty corporate building, once the pride of local economic-development enthusiasts.

“Fortunately, thefts like this one are rare in Springfield. I would attribute this primarily to the lack of large, complex and vacant buildings,” says Justin Myers, Springfield Police Department lieutenant.

“At the same time, I am not surprised, given the scale of the Royal Caribbean building and the infrastructure they had in place. We have seen similar theft activity, just on a much smaller scale when a residence or other commercial building goes vacant,” he says.

Police were unable to identify suspects in the Royal Caribbean case, he says.

Florida-based Royal Caribbean, which has a long-term lease on the property, is paying for the repairs, says Jon F. Hanson, chairman of Hampshire Real Estate, the New Jersey-based company that has owned the building since 2008.

“The tenant’s obligation is to restore it, which they are in the process of doing,” Hanson tells EW. “It will take a good part of 2025, because they have to order parts and things,” he says.

Quick work

The damage and theft occurred over one or more days in late June 2023, says the police report. “The time it takes for the theft/damage to occur is much shorter than one would expect. Those responsible for thefts such as this one are very efficient in their work,” Myers says.

The building, vacant since 2019, had apparently been left unguarded. These days, security guards patrol the place.

The damage helps explain why the building has remained empty so long.

Until electricity and HVAC are restored, Hampshire can’t sell or lease the place, Hanson says. “We are in the early stages of exploring how to find a user for the building,” he adds.

A Bricks $ Mortar column late last year focused on how the property had been empty for years. The column noted Hampshire was in no hurry to sell or lease the place, mainly because Royal Caribbean is still paying a steep rent. But at that time, EW didn’t know about the copper theft.

Royal Caribbean leased the custom-built facility and opened its call center there in 2006, then shut it in 2019 and shifted the work elsewhere. Royal Caribbean continues to pay rent to Hampshire under the lease that expires in 2026.

Royal Caribbean did not respond to a message from EW. The corporation may have insurance to cover some or all of the repairs.

New air chillers

It evidently took Royal Caribbean many months to line up contractors for the repair job, which began in earnest earlier this year.

In February, contractors applied for building permits to install two massive new air chillers for the HVAC system. Each weighs 10 tons. The permit estimates the cost of the chillers plus associated repairs at $475,000. It’s unclear whether that includes the cost of renting a crane that, according to a contractor’s estimate, is needed to remove the damaged chillers and hoist the new ones into place.

In March, contractors applied to install new low-voltage wiring for the HVAC system, at an estimated $300,000. Also in March, contractors applied for other electrical repairs estimated at $350,000.

A supervising contractor’s repair plan, dated this January and reviewed by the Weekly, put the total cost of the work at $5,966,499. The bulk of it, $4.84 million, is for electrical, HVAC and plumbing subcontractors. The work includes replacing two damaged electrical generators, which typically weigh about seven tons apiece, according to contractor documentation.

One upside for Royal Caribbean: the damage has temporarily slashed the value of the building and thereby cut the property tax bill, which the lease requires the tenant to pay.

Last year, in the wake of the damage, the county valued the building (excluding the land) at just $1.9 million, down from $7.5 million the year before. That cut the property tax bill for the entire property to $223,000, about half of what it was the previous year.

Bricks $ Mortar is a column anchored by Christian Wihtol, who worked as an editor and writer at The Register-Guard in Eugene 1990-2018, much of the time focused on real estate, economic development and business. Reach him at Christian@EugeneWeekly.com.