Ed Aster's last two Westec lots at auction.

Byline: Sherri Buri McDonald The Register-Guard

The Aster development era is almost over.

Former Eugene developer Ed Aster next week will auction off his last two lots at Westec Business Park, near the Hynix computer chip plant in west Eugene.

The lots are thought to be all that remains of Aster's once extensive real estate holdings in Eugene, which included all of Westec Business Park and the Aster Publishing and Woolworth buildings downtown.

"I believe these are the only two remaining lots Ed owns in Eugene, or in Oregon," said Milton Oilar, the Campbell Commercial Real Estate broker who will handle the auction on Tuesday.

Aster moved to the Eugene area from Los Angeles in 1977 and built a business publishing trade magazines. He sold the business to Cleveland-based Advanstar Communications in 1993.

Aster put most of his Eugene real estate up for sale in 1998, and it sold in bits and pieces in the ensuing years. In 2002, Aster and his wife, Barbara, moved to New Zealand, where they operate a winery and hotel.

After a contentious rezoning battle in 1997, Aster won approval to build a 71-room hotel on the two Westec lots that are now being auctioned off. The lots previously were zoned for industrial use. They are now zoned C-2, or community commercial, which allows a mix of commercial development, such as hotels, office buildings and restaurants, Oilar said.

The two sloped lots are sandwiched between Pitchford Avenue and Westec Drive. The reserve price is $2.25 a square foot, or $172,498 for the 1.76-acre parcel, and $2.15 a square foot, or $221,023 for the 2.36-acre parcel.

Potential buyers must register with Oilar and arrive at the auction by 2 p.m. on Tuesday with a cashier's check for 10 percent of their offer price, Oilar said. "They have 30 days to close," he said.

The two Westec lots were on the auction block with the rest of the business park back in 1998, but they didn't sell. The reserve price back then was $7 a square foot, Oilar said.

Why did the price drop?

"Motivated seller," Oilar said. "The truth is, it's back off of West 11th. If it were on West 11th, it would be $22 a square foot."

The land is also on a 13 percent grade, which affects development costs, he said.

"I just thought that (price) was low enough to get activity," Oilar said.

It certainly doesn't hurt, he added, that the property is located next to Hynix and Invitrogen. Hynix has 1,150 employees and Invitrogen has about 300.

But it's unlikely that a developer would build something to cater just to those businesses, Oilar said. "They don't have the mass that would dictate development just to serve them," he said.