In 2011, a downtown plan considered this building, the Eagles Lodge, as a possible site for a parking structure. (Photo Sept. 19, 2025)
People at Albany City Hall say there may come a need for a parking structure downtown. And to prepare, they’re asking the city council for permission to apply for a state grant.
The council heard about this Monday and may decide Wednesday whether to seek the grant, which would come from the Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development (DLCD).
If the council says yes, the request would be for $100,000, according to Sophie Adams, the city’s economic development manager. But she added that DLCD grants often are for less than the requested amount.
Growth in downtown business and housing results in “the pressing need for well planned, accessible, and financially sustainable parking facilities,” Adams and Community Development Director Matthew Ruettgers wrote in a memo. “This project will evaluate parking facility site options, estimate development and operating costs, create preliminary design concepts, and prepare a long-term business plan that ensures financial viability and coordinated management with key stakeholders in downtown parking.”
They added: “This project does not indicate that a parking structure is needed at this time but rather takes advantage of a current funding source to help us plan for that project if and when it becomes necessary.”
City officials hope to sell up to three parking lots on Water Avenue to Eugene developer Brian Obie so his companies can build apartments there. Obie has options to buy the parcels, but the option period won’t start until the council adopts a property tax exemption for apartment projects.
Councilman Michael Thomson had concerns about the grant request. “Who is this for?” he asked.
If the city is pushing for a parking structure intended for apartment dwellers downtown, he said that “will not go over well.”
The idea of a multi-level parking garage downtown came up as early as 2001, when it was one of the potential projects in the plan for CARA, the Central Albany Revitalization Area.
In 2011, CARA commissioned a downtown “retail refinement plan” that showed parking, including a possible three-story structure, on the property of the Albany Eagles Lodge at the corner of Water Avenue and Broadalbin Street.
But no one has remembered or mentioned that refinement plan since. (hh)
This graphic showing parking and other proposed downtown elements was part of a plan commissioned by the city in 2011.
We definitely need a parking garage in downtown Albany. When I first heard about it, I envisioned lots of interesting places to shop, to dine, to just walk and enjoy. I hope it comes about. We would have more downtown visitors and concert in the park wouldn’t be a parking problem. Think of it!
Parking is a major problem downtown. It always has been. No building permits should be issued now or in the future until parking has been added. Why would the city ever issue tax exemption to a developer who’s going to financially benefit, while us taxpayers are being squeezed with rising property and gas taxes? Makes me wonder how long this has been going on?
That’s funny after all the all the work that been put in to redo the front street roadway and the park someone wants to put up a parking garage at the end of the red brick road . At what cost to the good people of Albany going to have to pay for it and what bill you going to charge it on this time . Maybe the City Council can actually bring it to a vote this time and not hide it on a water bill or gas bill and electricity bill .
Having lived all over the USA, I can say that Albany needs a parking ramp. One good comparison is a town where I lived (adjacent) Wayzata, Minnesota. It is an old train depot and commercial center west of Minneapolis. It is on Lake Minnetonka, which is a very attractive feature in the summer. Its “downtown” is only four blocks on one side facing the lake. But it is all restaurants and high end clothing stores and there is a lot of foot traffic. So parking is a premium. 25 years ago the city built a large parking facility with maybe 2000 parking spaces. Because free public parking is available, it attracts a lot of people to the shopping / restaurant district. This is what downtown Albany has become, with the river the attractive feature. This is a good reference for Albany: https://www.wayzata.org/
All the money spent on this water front project was done for this retail and housing plan, better follow through with it now Thomson. Maybe do some research on the history and plan.
Parking garages, while helpful, are eyesores. If we get a parking garage downtown, I hope that a) it can be beautified with murals and interesting architecture, and b) that the first level is retail space so the entire lot isn’t lost to vehicles.
Here we go again, the cutsie thought of putting a parking garage potentially where the old eagles building stands now, may I remind the city staff that a parking garage will not work at that site it’s 75’ by 105’ long if you go to any elevated parking garage you need 32’ in and out and so yes you’d get 5 cars per level, let’s get real , re hashed this out 8 years ago, I’m still waiting to see who gets a legacy plaque with their name on it for the riverfront, let’s not start thinking of a plaque on a parking garage, grants are still taxpayer money
This has been studied numerous times and each time we were shown that there was no need, if you just have to spend the money, make a deal with the County to put up a structure over the top of their parking lot across from the courthouse.
I guess no one considered putting parking on the old Wells Fargo site before the city “gave it away” to a private developer.
The city still owns the Wells Fargo site, and as it happens, it is used for parking.
See below. Is the property not under contract?
No. Lepman has an option to buy it.
Let’s see- Scott Lepman is supposedly buying the Wells Fargo lot that the City blew $1.8 mil, minus what Scott Lepman actually pays for it, IF he follows through.
I predict Scott Lepman sells his block’s worth of newly inflated value property that just happens to be along the RED BRICK ROAD, to the City who will then pay to demolish any buildings on it before selling it to OBIE at a loss/subsidization or heaven forbid, try to build a parking structure under their own questionable leadership. What has the City gotten right financially in the last 10 years? Like Water billing software? Do they even care?
Scott probably finagles more funds to build a new office building (with apartments on top, because that “sells”) on the former Wells Fargo property.
You forgot the preexisting Parking that the city owned that they added to the deal, add another 500 grand.
The decisiveness that CARA has created in Albany outweighs any perceived benifit. It could not turned out any other way when the city council and a very aggressive mayor chose the winners and the losers for the first 15 years of the program. The winners being downtown property owners and the losers being everyone else who owns property in town.
Not to worry! Albany has run through their CARA (urban renewal) money, and, thanks to some legislation passed locally, a new urban renewal district in Albany cannot be formed without a vote of the people in a general election. That is, without a new urban renewal district approved, they can’t skim off the top of property taxes meant for schools and fire departments and government-maintained roads and use the money for pie-in-the-sky schemes such as the yellow…er, I mean pink-brick-road.
Besides, we have 4 more years of Trump. Who knows how many recessions (plus inflation) we can experience in that amount of time. Ordinary citizens slogging through recessions will not be in the mood to vote to keep fancying up the pink-brick-road and surroundings.
I have lived in Albany for over 70 years and just now the idea has become a project of major concern. This idea was needed to be implemented forty years ago, before all of the businesses were forced to move due to the lack of parking downtown. There was NO concern then about the death of downton Albany. In the last twenty years huge amounts of money has been spent on ‘improvements’ to bring people back. That money could have been used wisely instead of taking away the few available parling spots .