Christian Wihtol

Eugene

Contributor at The Lund Report

Associate Editor, Editorial Department, The Register-Guard, Eugene, OR

Articles

Old Dealership Gets a Makeover

3 weeks ago | eugeneweekly.com | Christian Wihtol

A vacant former car dealership in west Eugene is being turned into offices for the growing Zip-O business, the longtime Eugene maker of specialty timbers and beams. The family that owns Zip-O Log Mills and Zip-O Laminators bought the distinctive Sheppard Motors building at 2300 West 7th Avenue late last year and is proceeding with renovations.
Surgery center for Slocum

1 month ago | eugeneweekly.com | Christian Wihtol

Slocum Orthopedics, Lane County’s premier musculoskeletal surgical group, is moving ahead with building a standalone ambulatory surgery center on Chad Drive in northeast Eugene. As previously reported in this column, the physician-owned Slocum, headquartered on Coburg Road in Eugene, last October bought a six-acre parcel in the field west of the former Register-Guard newspaper headquarters on Chad.
4J Flipping Fargo

1 month ago | eugeneweekly.com | Christian Wihtol

The Eugene 4J School District’s long angst over its ownership of the vacant downtown former Wells Fargo building may soon be over. Lane County has tentatively offered to take the building off the district’s hands for $2.95 million. That means the school district would roughly break even on its real estate adventure after having bought the building in February 2024 for $2,894,000.
Demolition on Menu at Shari’s?

1 month ago | eugeneweekly.com | Christian Wihtol

A rapidly expanding out-of-state credit union has gobbled up the prominent vacant Shari’s Café and Pies restaurant in Springfield’s Gateway area and plans to demolish the hexagonal building and put up a credit union branch and drive-thru. Lacey, Washington-based TwinStar Credit Union bought the boarded-up Shari’s property on May 7 for an undisclosed price, according to the deed.
A Quick Profit on Wells Fargo Flip

1 month ago | eugeneweekly.com | Christian Wihtol

Late in the evening of Feb. 7, 2024, Andy Dey, at that time superintendent of the Eugene school district, was jubilant. The school board had just approved his plan to buy the empty former Wells Fargo building in downtown Eugene and remodel it into the district’s administrative offices. At Dey’s direction, the district the next day sent buoyant announcements to media, staff and parents. Dey gave upbeat interviews.
ER in Eugene Again

1 month ago | eugeneweekly.com | Christian Wihtol

McKenzie-Willamette Medical Center’s much-anticipated freestanding emergency department in Eugene will go on a vacant parcel just west of Chambers Street, plans filed with the city show. Many Eugene residents have been awaiting news after the Springfield hospital’s CEO declared eight months ago that McKenzie-Willamette would open an emergency department somewhere in Eugene, without providing specifics. The lack of updates since then led some Eugene residents to fear the project stalled.
Yet Another Student Housing High-rise?!

1 month ago | eugeneweekly.com | Christian Wihtol

A Dallas, Texas-based student housing giant is the latest company to target Eugene with a proposed student-housing complex. But it’s too soon to be sure this one will proceed. The Dinerstein Companies, one of the nation’s larger student-housing corporations, is tentatively eyeing the site of the shuttered 66 Motel on East Broadway for an 11-story building — three stories of parking topped by eight stories of student apartments, the company’s filings with the city show.
Polluter’s Dwindling Assets Scrutinized

1 month ago | eugeneweekly.com | Christian Wihtol

In the last few years, the owners of J.H.Baxter & Co.’s west Eugene wood-creosoting factory seemed destitute. They saved money by not replacing old, broken-down pollution-control equipment for treating the factory’s toxic wastewater. Instead, the company illegally boiled off hundreds of thousands of gallons of the nasty stuff directly into the air, the fumes wafting toward nearby homes in the Bethel neighborhood.
Thieves Looted Royal Caribbean’s Copper

2 months ago | eugeneweekly.com | Christian Wihtol

In late June 2023, thieves executed a rare and audacious act of copper pillage in Springfield. They broke into the big, vacant former Royal Caribbean call center in Gateway and ripped out copious amounts of heavy-gauge copper electrical system wiring and copper HVAC piping throughout the building, police reports show.
From Printing Presses to Climbing Gym?

2 months ago | eugeneweekly.com | Christian Wihtol

An elaborate climbing gym is being planned for the long-vacant former The Register-Guard printing press building on Chad Drive in Eugene. The gym would include a first for Lane County’s climbers: an outdoor climbing wall on the exterior of the four-story former press building, preliminary plans submitted to the city show. Old-timers know that as the same wall where an illuminated Santa Claus was hung every winter holiday season when the RG newspaper occupied the building.