For decades, developers wondered what to do with the 100-acre field sitting north of Marcola Road in east Springfield, a short walk from the giant sawdust piles of the Kingsford charcoal factory. Scattered subdivisions had cropped up around the 100 acres. But big ideas for the big tract fizzled.
One company a couple of decades ago wanted to build a giant retail complex and apartments there. But it never got past writing a master plan, and it defaulted on its loans. The 100 acres ended up owned by Oklahoma-based MidFirst Bank.
Then along came Karl Ivanov, a self-made Wilsonville-based construction contractor. In December 2019, he bought the 100 acres from the bank for an undisclosed sum and dubbed it Marcola Meadows.
Ivanov turned it into one of the hottest development spots in the county. It’s filled out at a remarkable pace, a neighborhood built from scratch.
Ivanov’s plan: Marcola Meadows would consist mostly of a huge subdivision of moderately priced single-family homes. Plus, it would have an apartment complex and a smattering of commercial and other non-residential development. To accomplish this, Ivanov parceled the land into pieces, built 2.7 miles of streets, sidewalks and utilities winding through the site, and then sold off the parcels. All the single-family acreage was bought by Texas-based homebuilding giant D.R. Horton. Other entities have snapped up the rest.
Six years on, Marcola Meadows is largely done, although three pieces of land along Marcola Road remain undeveloped: a field that Springfield Public Schools bought from Ivanov; an adjacent parcel that the Salem convenience store/gas station chain US Market bought from Ivanov last year; and a parcel a Eugene eye surgeon bought from Ivanov in 2020.
Ivanov’s company, I&E Construction, is talking with the city about building the convenience store/gas station for US Market, which has about 30 such stores in Oregon and Washington.
The pace of development surprised the city and the developer, says Loralyn Spiro, a city spokesperson. The speed “reflected the high demand for housing in the community and the appeal of locating in a new neighborhood,” she says. Marcola Meadows is close to “walking and biking paths, neighborhood parks, shopping, transit and… schools,” she says.
The city of Springfield is particularly pleased because the development is centrally located. It didn’t require expanding the city’s urban growth boundary onto farm or forest land.
Spendy work
It’s called for big dollars.
Ivanov’s company did not respond to Eugene Weekly emails and phone messages. It’s unclear how much he paid for the land, and how much he spent on planning and on the costly job of road/sidewalk/utility construction. But D.R. Horton had to pay a rich price to buy the ready-to-build sections Ivanov created. The Texas homebuilder has paid a total of more than $31 million for the 50-plus acres it bought, deeds show.
D.R. Horton began building the homes in late 2021. It has completed and sold 428 homes, has 18 for sale and just one single remaining lot to start building a home on, says Keith Manske, president of D.R. Horton’s Oregon division.
The company, which in 2025 completed 89,000 homes nationwide, is happy with its first Springfield venture.
“We are always looking for land in Eugene, Springfield or surrounding communities, as they have been great areas,” Manske says.
The company has been selling homes in Marcola Meadows in the $400,000-$530,000 range, Manske says, although the remaining ones are in the $419,000-$469,000 range.
The range is close to the average price of $481,000 for all homes — big, small, old, new — sold in Lane County in December 2025, according to the RMLS listing service.
Quick sales
The D.R. Horton subdivision occupies the north part of the site. The rest of the development is clustered along the south side. There’s the 312-unit Marcola Apartment Homes, completed in 2024 and owned by an Ivanov-headed company.
Northwood Christian Church in 2020 bought a parcel fronting Marcola Road from Ivanov’s company for $1.2 million, according to the deed, and in 2023 built its church there.
In 2020, the Springfield School District bought 14 acres along Marcola Road for $1,089,000 from Ivanov’s company, the deed shows. The district says it has no immediate plans for the site.
A company owned by Eugene eye surgeon Dr. Bala Ambati in 2020 bought a one-acre parcel fronting Marcola Road from Ivanov for $790,000, the deed shows. Ambati has done nothing with the land and didn’t respond to a message from Eugene Weekly.
An arm of US Market in 2025 bought its one-acre site along Marcola Road from Ivanov for an undisclosed sum as part of a property exchange, according to the deed. The company, headed by brothers Lal and Don Sidhu, did not respond to a message from Eugene Weekly.
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.