A potential buyer has stepped up for the shuttered PeaceHealth University District hospital in Eugene.
Georgia-based Landmark Properties, one of the nation’s biggest apartment developers, wants to construct a large student-housing complex on the site, the firm’s filings earlier this month with the city show.
Landmark would tear down the old hospital building on the east side of Hilyard Street to clear the way for a five-story complex that would total nearly 2,000 bedrooms in 526 apartments, the draft plans show.
It would be the biggest student-housing property in Eugene, where developers in recent years have crammed in big high- and mid-rise complexes catering to University of Oregon students.
PeaceHealth put the hospital plus three associated parking garages and adjacent office buildings up for sale four months ago, after shifting University District medical services to the health system’s flagship RiverBend Medical Center in Springfield.
Whether Landmark and PeaceHealth have or will reach a firm deal is unclear.
In a statement to Eugene Weekly, Landmark says: “We’re excited by the opportunity to revitalize a portion of the PeaceHealth University District campus site.” PeaceHealth, meanwhile, says in a statement to Eugene Weekly: “PeaceHealth is still negotiating with multiple interested parties regarding the University District property.”
Neither PeaceHealth nor Landmark addressed detailed questions from Eugene Weekly.
Landmark’s proposal begs the question whether there’s demand for yet more housing near the UO, on top of the roughly 4,000 student bedrooms added by developers in the last several years. But there’s little doubt more supply is good news for students and non-student renters.
Eugene appraiser Zoe Swartz says she surveys UO-area rental housing occupancy every fall. Vacancy rates have been rising, mostly in the newest projects as they compete with one another, she says. This fall, the survey “will be very telling because it will highlight the impacts of the most recently delivered projects on the market,” she says.
The UO declined to comment directly on the proliferation of off-campus housing. “The university is focused on building on-campus housing capacity, as we see more demand than we are able to accommodate for students, including upper division undergraduate students, graduate students, and students with families,” the UO said in a statement to Eugene Weekly. The UO plans to build on-campus dorms totalling 800 beds by late 2028.
No traffic study
The zoning on the University District site allows housing, possibly up to 11 or 12 stories.
Landmark has dubbed its concept The Mark at Eugene, a brand the firm uses for student housing.
It would be Landmark’s second venture in Eugene. Last year it opened The Standard student complex on East Broadway near the Ferry Street Bridge, with 703 bedrooms in 247 units.
It’s unclear what pedestrian and traffic impacts the project would have, clustering so much housing onto what is now vacant land, surface parking lots and the spot occupied by the empty hospital.
The city legally cannot require Landmark to perform a traffic impact analysis, the company’s consultant tells the city. Also, Landmark won’t build any parking; tenants will use nearby existing parking garages, Landmark says in its filing. With the phase-out of the University District hospital, those garages have become thinly used.
Big portfolio
It’s uncertain whether Landmark would buy the entire portfolio of University District buildings and land that PeaceHealth put up for sale. PeaceHealth hopes to unload the entire bundle in a single transaction, a source tells Eugene Weekly.
The University District package totals 12.5 acres of buildings and bare ground, including the hospital; adjacent vacant land and surface parking; three parking garages on Patterson Street and East 13th Avenue; two medical/office buildings on the west side of Hilyard; and other buildings along East 11th Avenue that house PeaceHealth’s secure inpatient behavioral health center. PeaceHealth says any buyer must keep the behavioral health center as a tenant until PeaceHealth builds a new behavioral health center at RiverBend.
It’s the biggest sale offering of Eugene property in recent years.
Landmark’s housing complex would take nearly six acres occupied by the hospital buildings plus the open space and surface parking lots along Alder Street.
Landmark would tear down three skybridges: two above Hilyard that connect the old hospital to medical offices on the west side of Hilyard, and one that links the hospital to the behavioral health center, the plans show.
The company expects to seek demolition and foundation permits in February 2026, the plans say.
Landmark’s complex would total 742,000 square feet. That much development spread out on a single level would exceed about five typical Costco warehouse stores.
Close to the UO
The site is just a block from the main UO west entrance, so student housing seems an obvious re-use option. But Landmark is hardly the only developer seeking proximity to campus in order to draw student tenants.
Chicago-based CRG, another major housing developer, completed the Chapter at Eugene student high-rise project on East 13th Avenue last year, just a block and a half from the west UO entrance. CRG says it will break ground this fall on another student high-rise, Alder Chapter, a block from the west entrance.
Landmark ranked 10th
Landmark builds and owns student housing and market-rate multi-family apartments.
The MultiHousing News website ranks Landmark the 10th largest apartment developer based on 2021-2023 production. In that period, Landmark completed 4,939 units, with an additional 4,657 units under construction, the website said.
Landmark is privately held and doesn’t disclose its finances.
But it appears to be booming.
It has built The Mark-brand complexes in college communities in Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, Texas, Colorado, Arizona and California. It has other student-housing brands in other states.
Landmark’s website says it has $15 billion worth of property under management, encompassing 115 residential complexes totaling 72,000 bedrooms.
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.
This story was updated after print to add a response from Landmark.