o After searching for a suitable site in Eugene for a new major <br />hospital, Peace Health ultimately selected a 180 acre site in <br />Springfield for its new hospital. <br />According to Business Oregon and the Lane Metro Partnership, a <br />number of businesses searched for industrial sites in Oregon <br />between 1997 and 2010. Examples included solar manufacturers, <br />data centers, food processors, biotech, other large manufacturers, <br />and warehouse and distribution firms. These businesses needed <br />sites of 25 acres or larger and some needed sites larger than 100 <br />acres. <br />A comparison of the industrial land bases in Springfield and Salem <br />provide a contrast to Eugene's industrial land base. All three of these cities <br />have economic development goals of growing industrial employment, <br />including businesses that require sites larger than 10 acres. The <br />characteristics of industrial land in Springfield and Salem are more <br />supportive of this goal than Eugene's industrial land base. These cities <br />provide information about the characteristics of industrial land that <br />Eugene will need to achieve its economic development goal of providing <br />opportunities for growth of businesses that need large sites, as well as <br />those that need small sites. <br />Springfield is part of the Eugene-Springfield economic region. We <br />have evidence that some businesses in Eugene relocated into <br />Springfield, in large part, because of Eugene's lack of large <br />employment sites. (See Chapter 4). <br />About one-third of Springfield's industrial employment is located <br />on sites 50 acres or larger and about 50% of industrial employment <br />is located on sites five acres or smaller. This information describes <br />the important role that both large and small sites play in <br />Springfield's developed industrial land base.73 <br />Salem is Oregon's third largest city, after Portland and Eugene, and <br />is located along I-5 in the mid-Willamette Valley. Salem has a <br />relatively large inventory of vacant industrial land, mostly <br />concentrated in the Mill Creek area. Salem has the largest supply of <br />vacant industrial land in Western Oregon, outside of the Portland <br />73 Springfield's Commercial mid hidustrial Buildable LaMs hiveirtotty mid Economic Opporhmities <br />Aitahysis, ECONorthwest, 2009. <br />Page 118 ECONorthwest Part 11 - Eugene Economic Opportunities Analysis <br />