Holt must jump hurdles before construction can begin.

Byline: Development Report by The Register-Guard

HURRY UP AND WAIT: Adoption agency Holt International is moving briskly ahead with planning for its Gateway headquarters but stresses that construction may not begin for two years.

In plans submitted to Springfield, Holt says it initially will put up a 25,000-square-foot building for 110 employees. Holt adds that within 15 years it may build a 10,000-square-foot addition to accommodate 35-plus more workers.

Holt earlier this year announced that it was planning the development on 2.5 acres on International Way that it will buy from Sony Disc Manufacturing.

Holt, currently in west Eugene, said it needs a new headquarters for its growing staff. Holt employs about 90 people at its City View Street office.

Holt CEO John Williams said Holt is looking at expanding programs to serve a growing number of homeless children. The agency serves homeless and at-risk children and their families in 14 countries.

The development plans submitted by Holt's architect, WBGS Architecture & Planning of Eugene, list the hurdles Holt will have to clear to build the project.

For starters, Holt and city planners have to agree how to handle stormwater. The Holt property sits next to the McKenzie River floodplain, according to city records, and the whole east Gateway industrial area has been subject to flooding over the years.

Stormwater options include either creating ditches on the property to carry water to the International Way stormwater sewer system, or letting the city build an "urban creek" across the Holt site as part of a stormwater management system for much of the Gateway industrial district, according to Holt's plans.

Also, Holt wants to cut down some of the roughly one dozen large English walnut trees on the property. To do that, Holt needs a city tree felling permit, which is fairly simple to get. The city code entitles developers to cut trees if they have an approved development plan.

Because the two-story Holt development would go next to an historic building - the Rice House, which Sony moved to that spot from its original site on Deadmond Ferry Road about a mile west - Holt also will need Springfield's Historical Commission to sign off on the project. The panel needs to review the Holt project to determine whether it is compatible with the Rice House, the city's planning staff said.

STAYING PUT: Downtown Eugene has its detractors, but don't count WBGS Architecture & Planning among them. The 35-employee firm says it has opted to renew its lease of 10,000 square feet at 72 W. Broadway for three years.

The firm likes having easy access to Lane Transit District buses, and likes being near the cluster of government and private offices in the city center, WBGS principal Bill Seider said. "I enjoy being downtown," he said.

Compiled by business editor Christian Wihtol. Development Report runs Tuesdays.