Aster's big dig downtown now under new ownership.

Byline: CHRISTIAN WIHTOL Register-Guard Business Editor

The unsightly pit on Willamette Street in downtown Eugene - dug by developer Ed Aster as part of a failed business venture - is under new ownership.

Eugene-based developers Don Woolley and Tom Connor last month bought the pit, and Woolley on Monday said he's thinking about putting stores and a parking garage there in tandem with converting the adjacent Centre Court office building into housing.

Woolley stressed that he and Connor have made no decisions about either the pit or the Centre Court building, which they own. But in coming months, they will examine whether to redevelop the properties, he said.

"We actually don't have a definitive use," Woolley said. But he added, "residential is something that is worth looking at."

The reopening of Broadway to car traffic will make the area more marketable, he said. The city is crafting a design for the nearly $3 million reopening project, which would be carried out later this year.

In a bid to increase residential development downtown, the City Council earlier this year passed a measure that exempts new housing from property taxes for 10 years.

Woolley said he's not familiar with the details of that measure.

An entity headed by Woolley and Connor - Blue Ridge Inc. - on Jan. 31 bought the pit from Ed Aster's Telecommlocate-Willamette St. LLC for $300,000, according to a deed filed with Lane County.

Aster bought the property at 930 Willamette St. in August 1994 for $387,000, according to a deed filed with Lane County. At the time, it was a vacant former Woolworth store. Aster tried to sell the property for several years for $875,000, then lowered his asking price to $700,000.

Then in late 2000, he proposed building a four-story telecommunications switching center on the site. He demolished the Woolworth building right down to the basement early last year, then stopped work.

Aster wouldn't talk to The Register-Guard, but observers said the regional and national high-tech bust left him without users for his proposed center.

All that's left is a gaping hole surrounded by a chain-link fence.

The pit is immediately south of the Centre Court building, a former J.C. Penney department store that now houses offices.

Woolley said that if he and Connor opt to turn the Centre Court into housing, they'd look at providing parking for residents by building a parking garage on the pit site, with storefronts facing Willamette. He said they'd look at both apartments for rent or condominiums for sale.

The two are carrying out a large condo project - the Marshall-Wells Lofts - in central Portland. About a year ago, they bought a seven-story building at 14th Avenue and Lovejoy Street, Woolley said. They're converting the approximately 280,000-square-foot building into 164 condos that will be marketed in the $180,000 to $500,000 range, Woolley said.

In Eugene, entities headed by Woolley and Connor own much of the property along Broadway between Willamette and Charnelton streets. That includes the vacant offices that formerly housed Symantec Corp.

Aside from the pit-Centre Court project, Woolley said they don't have other downtown redevelopment plans in the hopper.

CAPTION(S):

A pit on Willamette Street in downtown Eugene has been purchased by developers Don Woolley and Tom Connor for $300,000 from businessman Ed Aster, who paid $387,000 for the property in August 1994. CHRIS PIETSCH / The Register-Guard