EUGENE, Ore. — Neon-clad construction workers are scurrying around the Portal, a new 130-unit market-rate apartment building with commanding views of parkland leading the eye to the nearby Willamette River and the distant Cascade Range. They aim to finish work by next month on the second of a planned dozen buildings in a public-private partnership that officials say would transform Eugene’s long-neglected waterfront.
“Eugene needs more affordable housing, more compact housing, and more housing in walkable neighborhoods,” Eugene Mayor Kaarin Knudson says. “Downtown presents a unique opportunity to accomplish all of these goals, and significantly add to the housing diversity that serves our community.”
The plan: build up to 1,300 new apartments on eight parcels of land, which would increase the supply of housing in central Eugene by 50%, along with retail and restaurants built around a new waterfront park and plaza…