REI Closing Downtown Eugene Store, Moving to Former Bed Bath & Beyond

REI Co-op closed its longtime downtown Eugene location tucked into the old Eugene Planing Mill building on Lawrence Street after business hours Sunday, Feb. 20, 2026, and will relocate across the Willamette River to the former Bed Bath & Beyond at 95 Oakway Center. The company told staff and customers it has outgrown the tight downtown footprint and will move into a one-level Oakway space that it says will be nearly 10,000 square feet larger.

REI regional director Bob Cagle characterized the Oakway Center site as a more accessible layout and larger operation. “Our Oakway Center space will be one level and nearly 10,000 square feet larger than the current store, enabling an incredible experience for customers and staff through a highly accessible floor design, larger product assortments, improved dressing rooms, and ample warehouse space,” Cagle said. Company materials and local reporting place the Oakway footprint at 30,120 square feet and list department expansions including a full-service bike shop, a ski and snowboard shop, and a Re/Supply used gear and apparel department.

The downtown store had been a fixture on Lawrence Street since 1992, a roughly 34-year run that many longtime shoppers described as part of the rhythm of downtown. Tyler James summed the shopping habit this way in recent coverage: “Wander in for socks, walk out with a tent you absolutely didn’t plan on buying.” That Oregon Life and other local outlets framed the move with the line, “Now, that chapter is closing.”

Local reactions captured on camera in downtown Eugene included longtime customer John Fischer. “I love this spot. I went to the Eugene planing mill when it was the Eugene planing mill, but it'll be better in the bigger store,” Fischer said, adding, “You know, this spot just doesn't have as much stuff as they do in Seattle and all. So it'll be great, but I'll miss this store. It's really, it's a beautiful store if you've ever been here.” Fischer also described Oakway Center as “the least strip mally strip mall there is, but it still isn't downtown-ish.” Gary Voohries, another Eugene resident quoted by local television, said, “I think it'll make it more accessible for a lot of folks who don't like to come down to this area... Parking has always been kind of an issue. So, I don't know, we'll see.”

Operational details remain in flux. KGW reported the downtown location employed 41 people who may relocate to Oakway; REI operates seven locations around Oregon, and the company and local coverage have described the Oakway Eugene store as the second-largest in the state after the Beaverton Walker Center store that opened in 2024. KGW also noted that the original Eugene location was described by the company as “one of the smallest in the U.S.”, framing the move as a significant expansion of local retail capacity.

Timing beyond the Feb. 20 closure is approximate in currently available materials: outlets and company statements say the Oakway doors will open roughly one week after the downtown closure, placing a soft opening in late February 2026, and some previews describe the relocation as occurring in early 2026. The Daily Emerald published membership figures it attributed to local counts — “over 137,000 people holding membership in Eugene and just under one million in Oregon” — numbers that the paper reports without an independent methodology noted in initial coverage.

The move shifts REI from the timber-beam charm of the Eugene Planing Mill building on Lawrence Street to the 95 Oakway Center address on the north side of the river, changing parking and foot-traffic patterns for downtown merchants and Oakway Center tenants alike as the outdoor retailer expands its cycling, camping, and apparel offerings in a larger, single-level footprint.