By Christian Wihtol
In early 2020, Arcimoto Inc. executives gushed that their newly acquired factory in Eugene, Oregon, would crank out tens of thousands of electric vehicles every year.
But a less glamorous fate may lie in store for the now-vacant complex, following Arcimoto’s much-publicized implosion. A California businessman may turn the 10.6-acre industrial labyrinth into an outdoor/indoor RV, boat and general-purpose storage complex.
Arcimoto Inc. is an electric vehicle company headquartered in Eugene that designed, manufactured and sold the FUV—a tandem two-seat, three-wheeled electric vehicle—and its four variations.
Due to failure in scaling production to reduce unit price, Arcimoto ran into financial troubles in 2023, which stopped all production and delisted the company from NASDAQ. At its peak in February 2021, Arcimoto held a market capitalization of $1.2 billion, which has since fallen to $3,690 as of July 2024.
The businessman, Robert Ferrara, has asked city planning staff to confirm he can use the place for that, and also avoid the expense of paving and landscaping outdoor areas. The property’s current owner — Chicago-area real estate company Hilco Global — wants $10 million for the place, which sits two blocks south of the Eugene Mission shelter.
Ferrara is still researching the site, including its array of solar panels, and what upgrades the city might require. “I was certainly excited by the prospect of climate-controlled self-storage powered by renewable solar power. I’m just not sure that exists on the property at this point,” he said in an email to the newspaper.
Arcimoto touted the factory’s EVs as a key to saving the planet. Turning it into a place to store giant toys with internal combustion engines seems a step or two down from that. But plenty of other potential buyers, including investors and solar panel manufacturers, have looked at the property, says Tim Campbell, a Eugene commercial real estate broker who is co-listing the property.
“We’ve had a lot of showings of it,” Campbell says. It’s among the largest vacant factories in the South Willamette Valley area, he says.
Arcimoto, always strapped for cash and falling far short of its wildly optimistic sales and production goals, shut the factory in mid-2023. Nine months later it handed the place to Hilco in lieu of foreclosure. Hilco has been marketing it ever since.
On his LinkedIn page, Ferrara says he heads two Southern California ventures: one “develops, builds, owns and operates self-storage” facilities, and the other is a “nimble energy development company” that helps with power generation projects.
In his filing with the city, Ferrara says he doesn’t want to have to pave or repave outdoor areas or add landscaping or stormwater filtration. “We would like to continue storing vehicles, boats, RVs without repaving the site,” he writes.
The site is a hodge-podge of seven buildings totaling 204,000 square feet, including the centerpiece 153,000-square-foot main structure.
Arcimoto executives, relentlessly upbeat, in early 2021 said they needed more space than their long-time West 2nd Avenue factory/headquarters provided. So they bought the Chambers complex from its Junction City owners for $10.25 million, according to the sale deed. Arcimoto then spent heavily on electrical, lighting, sprinkler and roofing upgrades, and then ramped up vehicle production.
But the three-wheel open-air vehicles — technically classed as motorcycles — never caught on, while Arcimoto burned through money. Trying to stay afloat, in February 2023 Arcimoto took out a $6 million loan from Hilco, pledging the Chambers property as collateral.
By that summer, Arcimoto was trying to sell the property, but found no takers. It failed to keep up with payments to Hilco, according to deed filings. In April of this year, Arcimoto surrendered the property to Hilco.
In its marketing, Hilco stresses the site’s industrial potential and the “significant renovation to modernize it for heavy manufacturing with modern power infrastructure.”
The site’s one disadvantage is that it consists of so many buildings, Campbell says. “Users want it all under one roof,” he says.
It may be weeks before the city gives Ferrara usage and landscaping verdicts. Meantime, Arcimoto hangs on at its West 2nd factory. It does no manufacturing. Its small staff services customers’ Arcimotos, and it has some used and new Arcimotos for sale. The company plans a comeback, Dwayne Lum, chief operating officer, told the newspaper.
Christian Wihtol is a contributor to the Eugene Weekly in Oregon.
