Arlie & Company

The first 10 tenants have moved into their brand new second- floor apartments at Arlie & Company's Crescent Village, and many more are hot on their heels.

"We're releasing one floor of apartments every two weeks, because we're finishing one floor at a time," Arlie marketing manager Sadie Dressekie said Tuesday afternoon. "We've rented over 75 percent of the apartments in this building already - some of those people have been on a waiting list for a year."

Workers swarmed throughout the third and fourth floors of the building Tuesday, applying "mud" to seams and nails in recently hung drywall, smoothing new concrete on outdoor balconies or painting deep-hued accent colors on already finished walls.

In one two-bedroom, one-bath apartment, workmen assembled beds in what will become the model unit. Rents for studios and one-bedroom apartments range from $650 to $1,000. Two bedroom apartments rent for about $1,200, and premium two- and three-bedroom units rents for $1,600 to $2,500.

"I'm not sure we really need a model, the way things are leasing up," Dressekie said. "Since the buildings started growing out of the ground and the color has gone on, I think people can really see the vision."

The apartments are part of an "urban village" - the first of its kind in Eugene - where people live, work, shop and enjoy leisure time within a distinct community.

Not only apartment dwellers seem to be attracted to the concept. Two more businesses - Of Grape and Grain and Bello Day Sps & Salon, both now in the Reed & Cross building at 160 Oakway Road - plan to relocate into the first-floor commercial areas beneath the apartments in late January or early February.

"It was a decision about six months in the making," said J.B. van Hecke, who bought Of Grape and Grain in 1998. "We were considering other locations, but we liked the uniqueness of what Crescent Village will bring to the city of Eugene, as well as the opportunity for growth in this area."

Van Hecke plans to change the name of his eatery to the Cornerstone Cafe, to fit with his new location on a prominent corner on Crescent Village's main street.

"I'm hoping to establish a classic, comfortable feel that is simultaneously contemporary without being trendy, sort of Old World meets New World," said van Hecke, who grew up in similar community in The Netherlands.

The Cornerstone Cafe will have expanded hours - possibly as early as 6 a.m. and as late as 8:30 p.m. - to accommodate a breakfast and light-dinner crowd.

"We're really excited about having a storefront in a community, and the timing ended up being just perfect," said Stacey Conlon, who co-owns Bello, a full-service spa and salon, with her friend, Kenda Mason. "Since we opened five years ago, we've found some services that are more in demand than others, so this will also be a chance to make adjustments, to expand the areas that are more popular."

Bello's clients, who come from as far as Corvallis, Florence and Roseburg, "are all excited about the move," Conlon said. "We plan to have the work done sometime in January, and we'll probably be closed for a week and reopen the first of February."

The cafe and spa will join a growing list of businesses that will begin opening within the next few weeks, Dressekie said.

Businesses that have signed on the dotted line so far include a coffee shop, sushi bar, rugs and interior store, ethnic food restaurant, fine dining restaurant, wine bar, gelateria, gourmet pizza place, bank and two women's clothing outlets.

"We expect by the end of the first quarter of 2008 that our commercial space will be 95 percent rented," Dressekie said.

The first phase of Arlie's Crescent Village project, valued at $53 million, includes two buildings with retail on the first floor and 100 apartment units on three floors above, as well as 40 units of three-story, detached town homes.

The 40-acre urban village eventually will include 24 tandem row houses, some condominium units, two more commercial buildings, one with housing and the other with offices above the first-floor retail.

Plans for the project's second phase, valued at $70 million, call for a 50,000 square-foot grocery store.

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