Coming UP:
Three-Week Issue
The August 27 issue of What’s Happening will be a three-week
issue and will include events information from August
27-September 16.
Office Hours, Deadlines
The August 27 issue is our annual summer-break issue and we will
close the What’s Happening office from Friday, August 28 to Wednes
day, September 9.
The office will re-open Thursday, September 10 at 9 am, and the
Calendar and Classifieds deadline for the September 17 issue is 4 pm,
September 10.
The display advertising deadline for the September 17 issue is Mon
day, September 14 at noon.
Future Features
September 17:
September 25:
Mid-October:
Pacifica, What’s Happening’s first Literary Supple
ment, is four pages of prose and poetry chosen by
jurors of the First Annual Lane Literary Awards,
sponsored by Lane Literary Guild, Lane Regional
Arts Council and What’s Happening.
Eugene Celebration issue—comprehensive coverage
of Eugene’s biggest party!
Special Fifth Anniversary Issue. What’s Happen
ing looks back and looks ahead: How have we con
tributed to the specialness of Eugene? What is our
future role?
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WHAT'S HAPPENING •
Weekly News, Arts, Entertainment
Published Every Thursday
Publishers: Elisabeth Lyman,
Lucia McKelvey, Sonja
Ungemach
Editors: Lucia McKelvey, Sonja
Ungemach, Elisabeth Lyman
Advertising Manager: Elisabeth
Lyman
Production Manager: Sonja
Ungemach
Office Manager/Production:
Sheri Longobardo
Assistant Editor: Deborah
McCee
Account Representatives: Susan
Brokaw, Kathryn Carnhart, Ken
Hof, Martha Wagner, Garde
Wells
Cover Design: Melanie Pratt
Contributing Writers: Deborah
McGee, jim Stiak, Lois
Wadsworth, Martha Wagner,
Garde Wells
Distribution: Daybreak News
Co. Typesetting: ProtoType.
Camera Work: Graphics
Unlimited. Printing: Springfield
News
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Eugene, Oregon 97405
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© Copyright 1987 What's Happening.
All rights reserved.
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■PUBLIC INTEREST
Riverfront Research Park:
Economic Boon or Boondoggle?
by John Haakanson
Some critics call it an economic
boondoggle. Supporters respond it’s
precisely what Eugene’s sputtering
economy needs.
Almost everyone agrees on one
thing: Barring some unforeseen road
block, construction of the Riverfront
Research Park will begin within two
years.
Supporters of the park, including
the Eugene/Springfield Metro Part
nership, and much of the business
community, say the site’s potential at
tractiveness, coupled with its proximi
ty to the University, make it appeal
ing to potential tenants.
“We need to capitalize on the
strengths of the University, not just
natural resources,” says Diane Uto of
the Metro Partnership, echoing what
is becoming a recurring theme as
Eugene heads into the 1990s: the need
to diversify the local economy away
from heavy dependence on timber.
Detractors remain unconvinced, in
cluding some businesspeople who
would benefit if the project’s mix of
research, light manufacturing and
technologically oriented firms does
decide to locate in Eugene as a result
of the park.
“It’s like building an opera house
in Gresham,” says local software de
signer Greg Byrnes, who supports the
idea of economic diversification, but
thinks the partners in the project are
trying to do too much too soon.
“Under the yoke of their tremen
dous frustration, everybody is look
ing for an elixir,” said Byrnes, refer
ring to powerful local businesspeople
who have been “battered” by the
recession of the early 1980’s and its
lingering effects, and see the River
front Research Park as a way to diver
sify local economic strategy.
“People think, ‘Goldschmidt,
Olum, and Obie, are for it, so it must
be a good idea,’ ” says Byrnes. “But
none of those names are technological
types.”
Byrnes, 41, who graduated from
Harvard with a major in history and
a minor in math, is now designing
computerized three-dimensional
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libraries of industrial components
which allow companies to lay out
phases of manufacturing operations,
such as duct work or pneumatic
conveyance systems, on a computer
screen.
Byrnes has worked for three years
on the project, and will begin mar
keting the libraries this summer. His
other business experience includes a
joint venture with a local construction
group which bought and sold used
machinery in Viet Nam and the Phi
lippines after the Viet Nam War.
He has taken a hard look at the
local economy and feels Eugene lacks
what he calls the “critical mass”
Eugene attorney Nancy
Willard, president of
the Eugene Software
Council, says potential
companies will be
looking for a track
record of successful
University-industry
cooperation...
necessary to make the riverfront proj
ect a success, the conditions neces
sary to “set off a reaction that will be
self-sustaining.”
“If we put some antecedent things
in place, then we can justify the
park,” said Byrnes, who points to the
lack of technologically-oriented sup
port services such as patent libraries,
and businesses selling certain kinds
of electronic components as elements
necessary to provide the critical mass
to support a project on the scale of the
research park.
Byrnes feels the fact that the River
front Park offers an attractive site,
cheap power, and affordable rents
may not be enough to get companies
to locate here. He points out that West
Eugene’s Willow Creek industrial
park has not been a success to date,
despite offering some of the advan
tages touted at Riverfront.
He also believes Willow Creek,
which has managed to attract only two
or three tenants since it opened several
years ago, would be an ideal place to
begin setting up some of the elements
of the critical mass necessary to do
bigger things when the time is right.
“Let’s find an industry which could
be connected with the Univerity, and
get it temporarily located in Willow
Creek. ... If the private sector gets
excited about University expertise, if
we can get one instance of that work
ing, . . .” large projects can then be
justified, he said.
However, the Riverfront Park has
not made it this close to groundbreak
ing time without a chorus of support
ers, including Diane Uto, 32, Associ
ate Director of marketing for the
Metro Partnership, a group aggres
sively recruiting new businesses to the
area.
“Critical mass has got to start
somewhere,” says Uto (pronounced
“Utah”). “I don’t think it’s fair to say,
‘We’re not now, so we never could
be.”’
Uto, who listed Eugene’s underem
ployed, highly educated work force as
an asset which will help attract poten
tial research park tenants, feels critical
mass is already here in some areas,
including software.
She also points out that if the park
is built to completion, it could pro
vide 3,000 jobs on site and have “a
real ripple effect” in terms of creating
new service economy jobs in the com
munity as a whole.
Responding to critics who cite com
petition from research parks in other
cities plus logistical problems with the
71-acre site, Uto lists Eugene’s quali
ty of life and the link the park would
provide to first class researchers and
equipment at the University as strong
marketing incentives.
“The Riverfront Research Park
says, ‘We’re ready to move forward
and play in a bigger league,’ ” Uto
says.
On the other hand, a number of fac
tors could combine to hinder the
park’s development, says Nancy
Willard, 34, a Eugene attorney spe
cializing in business and software.
“We’re competing with 20 other
University related areas in the West,”
says Willard, citing a feasibility study
on the development of the park done
by the Battelle Institute of Columbus,
Ohio.
Willard, who is president of the
Eugene Software Council and has 45
software-related clients, says potential
companies will be looking for a track
record of successful University-in
dustry cooperation in deciding
whether to locate here, or in say, Fort
Collins, Colorado.
“The University’s track record is
minimal,” says Willard, who contends
that “more work needs to be done on
how the University is relating to in
dustry now.”
Although Willard says the Univer
sity has made “dramatic improve
ments,” she still feels there is an “anti
industry mind-set... I keep bump
ing up against it,” she said.
Willard also wonders about the im
pression prospective clients will have
of the site as it now exists, stating that
the railroad tracks which bisect the
tract and the existing buildilngs, in
cluding the University power plant,
make the aesthetics “a minus going
in.”
AS an alternative to the park pro
posal, Willard suggests a research
triad, with scaled down development
at the proposed site, another small de
velopment in the Autzen stadium
area, and industrial spinoffs at Willow
Creek, where the city has already
spent tax dollars extending roads and
sewers to an underused site.
“Let’s broaden it so we have a re
search community instead of a re
search park,” says Willard, who is
concerned about the lack of quick ac
cess to west Eugene’s industrial areas
and to the airport, from the site.
Uto answers concerns about the air
port by saying the time required to get
to Eugene’s soon-to-be-expanded fa
cility is less than many Portland firms
have to travel to Portland International
Airport.
She also feels the lack of a track
record is not crucial, as “nobody has
a long track record, because the big
link between industry and education
is just beginning.”
“Stumbling blocks are not uncom
mon,” in developing this type of facili
ty, says Uto, who recently attended a
conference on University-related re
search parks held at the “Research
Triangle,” a 6,500-acre project in
volving Fortune 500 corporations and
Duke University, North Carolina
State University, and the University
of North Carolina.
But Uto admits the Metro Partner
ship does not take clients to the site
as it now exists unless they request a
first-hand look, which would seem to
lend credence to Willard’s concern
that the area’s current aesthetics,
coupled with costs of up to $20
Continued on page 14