Eugene-based retailer Bi-Mart Corp. has sold off one of its biggest real estate assets: a vacant warehouse complex in West Eugene that’s valued at nearly $7 million.
The move appears to be part of the retrenchment Bi-Mart announced in January, when it said it was closing its five-store Cascade Farm & Outdoor division. The warehouse, at 645 Seneca Road, was Cascade Farm’s corporate office/storage facility, records show.
The buyer is Brent Lanz, a Eugene real estate developer and businessman best known for his eponymous cabinet-manufacturing business.
Lanz Cabinets needs the warehouse for expansion, says the company’s president, Kyle Bressler. The property sits next to the Lanz Cabinets factory on West 7th Avenue.
“We’ve outgrown our footprint, and we are growing our services,” Bressler says. The company has about 300 employees at its Eugene facility, and plans to add 60-90 employees over the coming year as part of an expansion, he tells Eugene Weekly.
Lanz Cabinets makes cabinets, countertops and sinks for builders across the western United States.
Contractors are carrying out repairs at the warehouse, Bressler says.
Have trouble visualizing the location? It’s a block northeast of the West Eugene Home Depot store.
The property sale is Bi-Mart’s latest streamlining move. Bi-Mart executives did not return messages from Eugene Weekly.
Employee-owned Bi-Mart is closing its Cascade Farm chain, which it launched in 2014 in a diversification effort. The Cascade Farm outlet on Main Street in Springfield’s Thurston area closed last week. It was the only Cascade Farm store in Lane County.
In late 2021, Bi-Mart sold its pharmacy business and closed all 56 of its in-store pharmacies.
The company has 78 Bi-Mart stores across Oregon, Washington and Idaho.
‘Healthy and Strong’
Earlier this month Bi-Mart closed its Vancouver, Washington store, telling the news media the store wasn’t profitable enough.
But the chain is “healthy and strong,” and will open two new Bi-Marts this year, one in Hood River, taking space formerly occupied by a Cascade Farm store, and the other in Seaside, the company said.
Bi-Mart bought the Seneca Road warehouse complex in 2003. It’s a big property: nearly 100,000 square feet of 65-year-old buildings on seven acres. The adjacent Lanz Cabinets factory totals about 165,000 square feet on nine acres.
Bi-Mart sells household items, from laundry detergent and paint to mouse traps and ammunition.
But property records show Bi-Mart’s executives also spend time on big real estate deals.
In 2021, the same year it sold its pharmacy business, Bi-Mart bought its Seneca Road headquarters building for $5.5 million, the deed shows. The HQ is a half-mile north of the warehouse Lanz bought this month. Bi-Mart also owns a large warehouse that backs onto its headquarters.
Other than that, Bi-Mart doesn’t own a lot of real estate. It leases the great majority of the properties that house its stores. In Lane County, Bi-Mart has 11 stores. But it owns the real estate of only a single store, at 5744 Main Street in Springfield, records show. Bi-Mart used to own its Junction City store property, but sold that in 2018 for $3.45 million, records show. Bi-Mart remained as a tenant.
Few details are publicly available about Bi-Mart’s finances. The company averages $10 million a year in sales per store, financial analysts estimate.
Industrial park, apartments
The deed for the warehouse sale to Lanz did not show a sales price. To finance the purchase, Lanz took out a $5.25 million mortgage, the deed shows. The Lane County assessor’s office values the property at $6.7 million.
Brent Lanz has built a substantial real estate portfolio. Aside from the Lanz Cabinets factory complex, Lanz holdings include the Alder Springs apartment complex he built in Eugene in 2019; the Maple Springs apartment complex he built in Junction City in 2024; and land next to Maple Springs for an additional planned apartment complex, Aspen Springs.
Lanz is developing the West Gate Industrial Park in West Eugene. In 2022, he bought, for an undisclosed sum, an old 80-acre wood products mill, which he’s carved into lots for sale. Late last year, West Gate made its first sale: a seven-acre parcel to Alsco, a Utah-based uniform supply and cleaning company.
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.