A Dallas, Texas-based student housing giant is the latest company to target Eugene with a proposed student-housing complex.
But it’s too soon to be sure this one will proceed.
The Dinerstein Companies, one of the nation’s larger student-housing corporations, is tentatively eyeing the site of the shuttered 66 Motel on East Broadway for an 11-story building — three stories of parking topped by eight stories of student apartments, the company’s filings with the city show.
Dinerstein has dubbed it “Aspire Eugene.”
But whether or when Dinerstein will begin construction is unclear.
Developers have swamped Eugene with new student high-rises in recent years, and at least two other student high-rises are proposed near the University of Oregon, although construction has not started on either.
Dinerstein has submitted some preliminary exterior designs to the city, and its contractor has asked for a permit to demolish the old motel. But Dinerstein has not yet applied for building permits. Nor has it bought the property from the site’s longtime owner, Stephen Pratt, a former Eugenean who now lives in Santa Cruz, California.
Pratt says he hopes the developer moves ahead. “We’re kind of keeping our fingers crossed,” he tells Eugene Weekly.
Motel ugly
The 1.4-acre site is wedged between East Broadway and the Union Pacific Railroad tracks, across Broadway from the new The Rive Eugene student housing high-rise.
Eugene is rich in ugly, utilitarian buildings, but the 66 Motel may take the cake. Its backside, which faces East Broadway and Hilyard Street, is a 400-foot-long 14-foot-high wall of beige-painted cinderblock splashed with graffiti. When the motel was in business, guests panned it for its grubby rooms and poor service, and for deafening train horns.
This appears to be Dinerstein’s first project in Eugene. The company’s communications person did not respond to emails from EW.
On its website, Dinerstein says it is “one of the nation’s largest developers of multi-family and student housing.” The privately held company says it has built more than 75,000 multi-family apartments plus student apartments totaling 44,000 beds.
The city in February approved a permit to demolish the 23,000-square-foot motel. Such permits typically are good for a year. The site’s commercial zoning allows high-rises. Late last year, the city approved Dinerstein’s plans for setbacks, landscaping, bicycle storage and facade work.
Uncertainty at 13th and Alder
Meanwhile, construction has not yet begun on two previously reported proposed student high-rises at Alder Street and 13th Avenue, a block west of the UO campus.
A California developer, Eran Fields, owns the vacant lot in the southwest corner of the intersection. In 2022, he filed plans to build a 12-story student housing tower. But since then he’s made no progress and has not sought building permits. For the last couple of years, his lot was used for equipment and materials storage for the construction of the adjacent Chapter Eugene student high-rise. The 12-story Chapter Eugene opened last fall. It is owned by Chicago-based CRG, a major nationwide residential, commercial and industrial developer.
CRG is also the developer of a proposed 15-story student housing tower on property near the northeast corner of 13th and Alder. In March, the city approved some design elements, including setbacks and bicycle storage. CRG has not yet applied for building permits. The project would involve razing several small existing buildings.
The money at stake in these projects is mind-boggling. In 2023, soon after it was completed, the 12-story Rive sold to a Chicago investment group for $100 million, according to the deed.
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.