A Chicago-based developer has paid a high price to move ahead with the student apartment tower it will build less than a block from the University of Oregon’s west entrance.

The developer, CRG, earlier this month paid a total of $6,540,000 for the three old buildings it is razing at the northeast corner of East 13th Avenue and Alder Street to construct the 15-story Chapter Alder highrise, the deeds show.

CRG is tearing down the 98-year-old building on East 13th that housed the Espresso Roma cafe, and the former Maple Garden restaurant and a three-story 125-year-old apartment house, both on Alder.

The purchases show how developers, in their free-for-all for sites close to the UO, are handing windfalls to owners of strategically situated old buildings.

Being a quick walk to the UO is key for the 491-bedroom tower, CRG says. Development spots in that neighborhood are “in extremely short supply,” CRG says in a news release.

Meantime, some worry the student-housing market is being overbuilt. That would be a boon for students and a headache for some landlords.

CRG’s site is diagonally across from The Ellis, a 12-story student housing tower under construction by California developer Eran Fields. The Fields and CRG sites look out on the shuttered PeaceHealth University District hospital, where Georgia-based Landmark Properties plans the city’s largest student-housing complex. These come atop the roughly 4,000 student bedrooms developers completed in recent years in the UO area.

Is anyone worried the market is being overbuilt?

“How could you not be?” says Fields in an interview with Eugene Weekly. “Anyone who tells you they are not concerned is not being honest.”

But the complexes closest to the UO will come out winners because student renters will “migrate” to them from more distant housing, Fields says.

The in-the-works sites close to campus “are all amazing locations,” he says.

Fields and CRG will be competing to lure students for fall 2027 occupancy.

Money talks

For their Eugene roulette game, student-housing developers are securing eye-watering sums from investors and banks around the country.

These projects typically use a mix of capital from investors and large loans from banks.

Fields, who has developed 15 student apartment projects nationwide, won’t disclose his budget for The Ellis. But in October he obtained a $77 million construction line of credit from a California bank for the project, the deed shows.

CRG won’t disclose its total Chapter Alder budget. But CRG earlier this month secured a $50 million construction line of credit from an Illinois bank for the work, the deed shows.

Payday

The purchases by CRG for the Chapter Alder site proved a jackpot for the sellers.

CRG paid California coffee shop magnate David Sandy Boyd $3.3 million for the East 13th building that housed Espresso Roma, a business Boyd owned, the deed shows. That’s a steaming price for a 98-year-old 3,600-square-foot building on 0.17 of an acre. Boyd bought the building from its longtime previous owners for an undisclosed sum in July 2024. Lane County’s assessment office last year estimated the property’s market value at $1 million.

CRG paid a Eugene family $2.25 million for the three-story 125-year-old apartment house on 0.11 of an acre on Alder, the deed shows. The Ranstad family had bought the house in 2020 for just $900,000, the deed shows. The county last year estimated the market value at $800,000.

CRG paid an Arizona-based family $990,000 for the tiny 76-year-old building on 0.03 of an acre that once housed the Maple Gardens restaurant, the deed shows.

CRG was unable or did not want to buy the newer building smack on the corner of East 13th and Alder that is owned by a Eugene family and is leased to Dave’s Hot Chicken and Jersey Mike’s fast-foot eateries. CRG declined to comment.

Paying big dollars for a site drives up a developer’s overall costs for a project. That can increase how much return the developer seeks, in the form of higher rents.

Confidence

Campus proximity has paid off for CRG’s first Eugene student-apartment tower, Eugene Chapter, next to The Ellis construction site on East 13th, CRG says.

The 12-story Eugene Chapter opened in fall 2024. Demand was strong and the building immediately “stabilized” at 97 percent occupancy, CRG says in a news release. Typically, developers give an apartment project a year to “stabilize” and reach its sustainable occupancy rate.

“The demand for quality student housing [in Eugene] has never been stronger,” says the CRG news release. The Chapter Alder project “reflects our long-term confidence in the student housing sector and our belief that 13th and Alder will be the epicenter of student life,” CRG says.

Big on retail

The Ellis has been a long time coming — and required spendy site acquisition by Fields.

In 2014, he bought for an undisclosed sum the portion that housed a 7-Eleven store, the deed shows. The store had 10 years on its lease, so he had little choice but to wait, he says. In 2021, he bought the Glenwood restaurant for $3 million, the deed shows. And in 2022 he bought another small building for an undisclosed sum, completing his site purchases.

Most student-housing developers don’t include retail space. But The Ellis will feature 10,000 square feet of it, Fields says. “Many [developers] stay away from putting in retail, but I love it,” he says. “It’s a great amenity for the students and for the community.”

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.