by Christian Wihtol of The Register-Guard
The Oregon Social Learning Center, a private, nonprofit research group in Eugene, is planning a new headquarters to accommodate its growth.
Now based in the Fifth Pearl Building north of the Fifth Street Public Market, the center would move most of its operations into a 22,000-square-foot, two-story building proposed for Fourth Avenue and Pearl Street, just north of the Southern Pacific rail line.
The office would be built and owned by Jenova Land Co., an arm of the local Connor and Woolley families. The site currently is a parking lot.
The Connor and Woolley families own the Fifth Pearl Building and a number of other buildings and vacant lots along that stretch of the rail line.
The center’s staff has grown to 135 full- and part-time workers, said Gerard Bouwman, the center’s administrator.
“We simply needed more space,” Bouwman said. “We do a lot of interview and lab work, with audio-visual recording, and the sound and temperature control in Fifth Pearl is not ideal.”
With an annual budget of about $5 million, the center studies the development of antisocial behavior, including violence and drug and alcohol abuse, in children.
By tracking a large number of children over many years, “we try to chart the kinds of things that put them at risk,” said John Reid, the center’s executive director.
The majority of the center’s funding comes as grants from the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Institute of Drug Abuse, Reid said. The center was founded 25 years ago.
The center also develops treatment and prevention programs for antisocial children, Reid added. Some of the programs, including one for foster children, are operated under contracts with Lane County and the state, Reid said.
Currently, the center occupies 14,500 square feet in the Fifth Pearl Building, along with about 12,000 square feet in a building at Fourth Avenue and Pearl Street that formerly was occupied by the Mediterranean restaurant.
The center wants to vacate the Fifth Pearl Building but remain in the former Mediterranean eatery, which would be connected to the new office that Jenova Land Co. would build.
Bouwman said he’s hoping for a ground breaking in March or April, with occupancy by October or November.
The Connor and Woolley families have been accumulating and developing property in Eugene’s Fifth Avenue/Whiteaker area since the early 1990s.
Reprinted with permission. Copyright 1997, The Register-Guard, www.registerguard.com.