The developer of a planned federal Department of Veterans Affairs behavioral health clinic in Eugene is inching ahead on the project, recently clearing a couple of key hurdles. But it’s uncertain when he’ll begin construction at the Chad Drive site.

In late September, Linn County-based developer Jeff Parker bought the 2.3-acre parcel for the clinic from the local Chambers family for $2.66 million, according to the deed. The hefty price highlights how the value of land along Chad has soared in recent years as developers have gobbled up what was once prime farmland, leaving less and less on the market.

The purchase came a couple of days after Parker secured city approval for a partition that created the 2.3-acre parcel. The site was carved out of a 10-acre parcel of farmland owned by the Chambers family.

Records show Parker is working with city planning staff on details of the 20,000-square-foot clinic, which would go next to the back parking lot of the VA medical center on Chad. But he hasn’t applied yet for building permits.

Parker didn’t respond to questions from Eugene Weekly; the VA won’t reply to EW emails.

Doing business as Blackhawk LLC, Parker is under contract with the VA to privately fund construction of the clinic, then lease it to the VA for 15 years. VA paperwork that’s available online indicates the place needs to be open by 2028.

Prices go up, up

Chad Drive has become a hotbed for development, and land prices there have spiralled upward.

City leaders decades ago envisioned the empty fields along Chad becoming a “campus industrial” center drawing high-tech and other similar companies that would bring jobs and wealth to the metro area. But there were few takers for that narrow concept. Instead, Chad is now home to a hodgepodge of entities, including a Christian school, a St. Vincent de Paul nonprofit donation center and thrift store, and two local electrical contractors. 

In the works are the VA behavioral health clinic, two medical clinics, an Oregon State Police regional office, and, in the former Register-Guard printing press building, a climbing gym.

Land prices on Chad “have gone up rather dramatically,” says Eugene commercial real estate broker Alan Evans.

In 2023, the Oregon State Police paid $3.79 million for 6.5 acres on Chad from the Baker family, the former owners of The Register-Guard newspaper business. That’s $13.40 a square foot. The per-square-foot price is a common measure in vacant land sales.

In late 2024, the Bakers sold a 4.5-acre parcel to a local gastroenterology practice for $3.33 million, according to the deed. That’s $17 a square foot. The doctors plan to build a clinic there.

Blackhawk’s 2.3-acre purchase from the Chambers family was at $26.50 a square foot.

Direct comparisons on these deals are tricky. Typically, the price per square foot is higher for a small parcel than a large one. Also, Blackhawk’s deal includes, besides the 2.3 acres, a right-of-way on a private street that would lead to the behavioral clinic site.

At any rate, the Chambers family has set a rich price for its remaining 7.8 acres next to the planned VA behavioral health clinic. The family has the land on the market at $9 million, or $26.50 a square foot.

It’s “one of the last large pieces of land available for development” in northeast Eugene, says a marketing brochure by the listing broker, Eugene’s Evans Elder Brown & Seubert.

Chad’s proximity to Beltline Highway and Interstate 5 make it desirable, Evans says.

VA’s code of silence

The clinic is a project that will be paid for by taxpayers to serve the 27,000 military veterans living in Lane County. But the VA has repeatedly declined Eugene Weekly’s requests for comment, or for key public documents.

EW this summer filed a federal Freedom of Information Act records request with the VA asking for the VA’s contract with Blackhawk. Records available online show the sides signed the contract in February, but they don’t provide the contract itself. The VA acknowledged receiving EW’s request, but it has never provided the records and has not responded to repeated emails asking about the status of the request.

Separately, EW has tried to get comment from the VA’s Roseburg headquarters, which oversees VA activities in Eugene. EW this summer asked the Roseburg spokesperson what services the new facility will offer and whether the VA will continue providing behavioral health services at its two current locations in downtown Eugene. The VA spokesperson said the agency had prepared answers, but that higher-ups had not approved their release. Since then, EW has repeatedly asked the agency to release the answers. But the spokesperson now does not respond to EW emails.

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.