`Staggeringly high' costs halt plan to buy Centre Court.

Byline: Susan Palmer The Register-Guard

It looked good on paper for a couple of weeks. But Thursday, St. Vincent de Paul rescinded its controversial offer to buy the vacant Centre Court building in downtown Eugene because of much higher than expected renovation costs.

No one pressured the agency to pull the offer despite the fact that some downtown business owners hadn't welcomed the notion of a thrift store on the ground floor of what many consider to be a premier property, said Terry McDonald, the agency's executive director.

"Sometimes dreams don't come true," McDonald said.

Rob Bennett, general partner in the Downtown Athletic Club who had criticized the plan, said he felt bad about the outcome.

"I wasn't hoping to win because he found a problem with the building," Bennett said.

St. Vincent de Paul signed a purchase agreement earlier this month with Tom Connor and Don Woolley, owners of the office building at the corner of Willamette and Broadway streets.

In addition to opening a thrift store, McDonald wanted to offer the upper floors as commercial office space with discounted rents to encourage new entrepreneurs.

But he put the brakes on the project when the owners gave him reports showing how much work it would take to bring the building up to current standards.

Asbestos in the floors, walls and ceilings and lead paint on some of the walls would need to be removed. The ancient heating and cooling system would need to be replaced. And that was just to make the building safe, McDonald said. The reports didn't address any other requirements that might come up during the city's permitting process.

"It was staggeringly high," McDonald said. He had expected to spend between $500,000 and $1 million for remodeling, but figured those costs would now double.

At that rate, he couldn't afford the discounted rents to fulfill his desire to create a small-business incubator. He declined to discuss the purchase amount for the Centre Court, but it had an assessed value of $1.4 million.

McDonald's decision highlights the challenge developers face with the Centre Court, said Jack Roberts, executive director of the Lane Metro Partnership.

"The question is whether you believe you can generate the kind of return you need either through rent or through your business operations if you're an owner-operator," he said.

It may well be that the building needs to be torn down and replaced, he said. It's been vacant for two years.

"But you're only going to do that if you have tenants lined up who can return that kind of investment," he said.

McDonald has said he'll continue looking for a place to consolidate his downtown stores.

And that's fine with Russ Brink, executive director of Downtown Eugene Inc., who believes that discussion about the Centre Court buyout quickly spiraled in an unintended direction.

People mistakenly concluded that "poor people" weren't welcome downtown, when in fact everybody should feel welcome, he said.

The issue isn't that a St. Vincent de Paul thrift store should be excluded from downtown, but that something more compelling should be at the vortex of two crucial streets.

Portland's thriving downtown has a mix of retail, including thrift stores, Brink said. "But they're not across the street from Pioneer Square," he said.

A phone call to Connor and Woolley for comment wasn't returned.

CAPTION(S):

St. Vincent de Paul has rescinded its controversial offer to buy the vacant Centre Court building in downtown Eugene because of higher than expected renovation costs. Brian Davies / The Register-Guard