EUGENE — Sierra Pacific Industries, a third-generation, family-owned forest products company based in California, plans to build two new mills in Lane County.

SPI plans to build the mills at its Eugene manufacturing site, replacing existing sawmill facilities with a new cutting mill and stud mill. The current facilities can process about 350 million board-feet annually; the new facilities will be able to process 650 million board-feet annually.

“This project will make our Eugene mill site one of the largest and most modern sawmills in the United States…,” said Todd Payne, SPI’s president of lumber.

Payne said the new facilities will help Sierra Pacific build its momentum in the market and meet the anticipated demand for housing.

Andrea Howell, SPI’s spokeswoman, said the company’s leaders decided to make this investment after evaluating mill infrastructure and projected short- and long-term markets.

“In that evaluation, we’ve determined that this mill investment will match the timber supply,” said Howell. “We have assessed that these new mills are sized to ensure that we can provide the log supply that will be needed as well as help meet the lumber demands for the future.”

Howell said the new mill facilities will process logs from SPI’s forestlands, woodlands owned by other private landowners, and state and federal lands.

SPI owns and manages more than 2.4 million acres of timberland across California, Oregon and Washington and is one of the nation’s largest lumber manufacturers. In Oregon alone, SPI owns 177,000 acres of forestlands, mainly in Douglas and Lane counties.

The new Eugene facilities will mainly process Douglas fir, said Howell. The stud mill will process logs 5 to 16 inches in diameter, while the cutting mill will process logs 16 to 48 inches in diameter.

The mills will be outfitted with modern technology, enabling the company to process logs more efficiently, said Howell.

SPI’s leaders say they expect to continue to employ the more than 300 people who work at the Eugene site. The mills, they say, will also support indirect jobs. Across Oregon, SPI employs more than 500 people.

SPI bought the Eugene site as part of a larger 2021 acquisition and started plans for growth and expansion almost immediately, according to the company.

Howell said the company will sit down with officials from the City of Eugene and Lane Regional Air Protection Agency soon to work through the permitting process.

If the project gets the necessary permits and approvals, SPI will construct the mills offline, alongside existing mill facilities, allowing current operations to continue during construction. SPI’s leaders expect the project to be completed between 2025 and 2026.

Alongside the new mills, the company will also construct a new trucking facility and a new facility for engineering, technology and fabrication. The estimated completion timeline for these facilities is the fall of 2023.

“These investment decisions by SPI are a reflection of our confidence in the need for sustainable building products, as well as that of our Oregon crew members and communities,” said Mark Emmerson, SPI’s CEO.

“In that evaluation, we’ve determined that this mill investment will match the timber supply.”

Andrea Howell, SPI spokeswoman