All-studio complex proposed

July 05--Already bristling with new student housing apartment complexes, Eugene nonetheless may have room for one more big one, a developer figures.

The latest project, according to tentative plans submitted to the city, would be a six-story structure totaling 251 units, plus two stories of underground parking.

A distinguishing feature: Every unit would be a studio apartment, with a Murphy-style wall bed. Also, the building would feature 141 on-site underground parking stalls.

Under the plans, the developer wants to get started with excavation and underground parking construction sometime this fall.

The project would be east of the University of Oregon'sMatthew Knight Arena on roughly an acre immediately south of the Skybox and Courtside student apartments, which opened in 2011.

The acre, at East 15th Avenue and Orchard Street, is an unused, paved parking lot.

The developer's identity is unclear. The site is owned by Brad Tuski of Aurora, who bought the land in 2008 from a Eugene dentist, Karl Wagenknecht, for $925,000, according to deeds filed with Lane County. Earlier this year, Tuski took out a $750,000 loan against the property, according to a deed. Tuski could not be reached for comment.

On paperwork filed with the city, Eugene-based developer and property manager Roy Carver is listed as involved with the project. Carver declined to comment except to say the project is in its very early stages.

While this project would exclusively contain studios, most other student-housing developers in the last few years have included a mix of unit sizes and types, including a large number of multi-bedroom apartments shared by two, three or four students.

The latest project would feature a ground-floor swimming pool in a central courtyard, with apartments wrapped around it.

The land is zoned for apartments, according to the tentative plans.

Over the past several years, local and out-of-area developers have gone wild building or planning student apartments near the UO. Some of the proposals have died on the vine. But many have advanced and are either complete or under contruction. The biggest project underway, and partially occupied, is by Alabama-Capstone in downtown Eugene, and when finished will house about 1,200 students.

Texas-based American Campus Communities is in the middle of building a 192-unit student housing complex on Garden Avenue north of Franklin Boulevard. Chicago-based Core Campus earlier this year broke ground on a 184-unit, 12-story student housing tower at East Broadway and Ferry Street near the city center.

Other student housing developments in construction include The Patterson, a 100-unit complex at Patterson Street and East 13th Avenue, and a five-story, 130-unit building on Kinkaid Street across from the UO's Knight Library.

Tuski's parcel is less than a block from the eastern boundary of the UO.

Pat Kilkenny, the former UO athletic director, insurance exectutive and UO alumnus, liked that area of the campus periphery well enough to co-develop the $29 million Skybox and Courtside buildings, which contain 123 units with some 400 bedrooms.

Observers and developers have said one of the main effects of the new student complexes will be to draw students away from the older, dilapidated rental houses and small, old apartment buildings that dot the neighborhoods surrounding the UO.

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