Bi-Mart appears to be closing its store on Willakenzie Road in northeast Eugene. The Eugene-based general-merchandise chain hasn’t announced the closure. But the owner of the store building, a family based in Sisters, has put the property up for lease, with an ad stating that it is a “former Bi-Mart” location. As of early this week, the store was still open.
The commercial broker handling the leasing of the property off Coburg Road is Eugene-based Evans Elder Brown & Seubert. Broker Stephanie Seubert says there has been some interest in the building, but noted the agency has had the listing only a short time. The listing went live in the last several weeks.
“There has been demand for large retail spaces,” Seubert adds.
The 30-year-old building has 32,000 square feet of space. It sits in the same plaza as a Market of Choice grocery store. The entire plaza is owned by the Sisters-based Murray family.
Officials for Bi-Mart didn’t reply to an email and phone message from Eugene Weekly asking for confirmation or denial of the closure. Staff at the store said they were uncertain about Bi-Mart’s plans. A representative for the Murray family did not return a call.
Closures a rarity
Bi-Mart is a local retailing mainstay, with 11 stores in Lane County. It has about 75 stores all told in the Northwest. It’s unusual for the employee-owned chain to close stores. The last time appears to have been in January 2024, when it shut what it called an “underperforming” store in Portland, according to news reports.
Coburg Road is considered a desirable retail corridor, but even there it can take time to fill empty spots. The bankrupt Bed Bath & Beyond chain shut its store at the Oakway Center on Coburg Road in July 2023, but not until January 2025 did a new tenant — recreation supplier REI — sign a deal to move in there.
UO, developer sign contract
On an unrelated front, the University of Oregon and a Portland firm have finally signed a contract for development of the UO-owned property anchored by the historic Romania car dealership on Franklin Boulevard in Eugene.
But don’t expect to see construction anytime soon.
The contract gives the developer, called Project^, two and a half years to conduct “due diligence,” which includes environmental testing, evaluating how to renovate the former dealership building and other planning for the four-acre site. The contract doesn’t contain a timeline for Project^ to start construction of the complex, which is tentatively set to include apartments or condominiums, retail space, a hotel and parking garages, totaling more than 500,000 square feet.
The company will use the due diligence period to create a timeline, says Mike Harwood, the UO’s architect and an associate vice president. “We expect a schedule from the developer soon, but I don’t have a commitment as to when that will be. We will have a chance to review it and comment on it. As part of that process, we will identify and solidify the key dates moving forward,” Harwood tells EW in an email.
Thomas Cody, Project^’s president, didn’t reply to an email from EW.
Profit sharing
Under the 48-page contract, which the sides signed in May, Project^ is leasing the site for 55 years, with two optional 10-year extensions. If in the due diligence period Project^ decides the development is not feasible financially or otherwise, it can withdraw. The contract gives the UO “approval rights” over the “material elements of the schematic, design and construction drawings,” plus over construction schedules. Once Project^ fully develops the site, the company will pay the UO rent of $588,000 a year, with a 2.5 percent increase per year, according to the contract. Also, the UO will receive profit sharing if the complex hits certain profit milestones, according to the contract. The UO may let the proposed hotel use UO trademarks and advertise itself as a “flagship hotel” of the UO, the contract says.
The UO has never before done such an elaborate collaboration with a private-sector developer. Project^ and the UO began negotiating in 2019.
Eve Weston contributed to this article. Bricks $ Mortar is a column anchored by Christian Wihtol, who worked as an editor and writer at The Register-Guard between 1990-2018, much of the time focused on real estate, economic development and business. Reach him at Christian@EugeneWeekly.com.