The Oregon Electric Station has been sold to a partnership consisting of local businessmen Tom Connor and Don Woolley and the Ruggeri family, which owns an Italian restaurant company that spans the globe. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The partners plan to close the restaurant temporarily at the end of March for a two-month remodel — “no structural changes” — and then reopen it with a new menu, said Raffaele Ruggeri, CEO of his family’s Bice Group. The menu will draw from the Ruggeris’ Italian roots and also from the Pacific Northwest, he and his partners said.

Ruggeri said Wednesday that his family and Connor and Woolley, who own the Oregon Electric Station property, are 50-50 partners in the venture.

Ruggeri is doing the hands-on work of getting the new incarnation up and running — including overseeing the remodel, hiring and training staff, and creating a new menu — and then operating it, with his sister Rossella, who also has restaurant experience.

Connor said he wanted to partner with the Ruggeris because “I was impressed with their ability to run a great restaurant. It was a bonus that they lived in Eugene and could execute the vision we all had.”

Raffaele Ruggeri said he is hoping current employees are enthusiastic about his ideas and will want to stay on after the change in ownership. He has already made offers to some key employees and will be meeting with all employees in the coming days, he said. He said he wants people who are excited and enthusiastic, adding, “If we have 30 great people applying, the existing employee will get preference.”

Ruggeri’s ongoing personal involvement in the restaurant is a departure from his normal role as head of the international Bice Group, he said, where he delegates hands-on work to others. But the restaurant itself is different, he said.

It is not part of the larger company, he said, but rather a labor of love for the Ruggeri family.

His three sisters have all lived in Eugene for years, he said, drawn here by the quality of life — particularly for families raising children — and the quality of the schools.

He finally decided to join them, he said, moving here from Miami about six months ago to be closer to his siblings and his parents, who live in California. Ruggeri said that, like his sisters, he fell in love with the area, including such community values as protecting the environment. And, he said, his children are now teenagers and he thought Eugene was a better community for them than Miami.

His sister Rossella, who is joining him in the restaurant venture, grew up in the industry but left work to raise her children. Now that they are growing older, she is eager to join the business, she said.

The Eugene restaurant will allow the siblings to indulge their passion for fresh, local ingredients and sustainable, organic foods, family members said. “Ever since we came here, I’ve felt like we were blessed by having so many great local products,” Rossella Ruggeri said.

Her brother said he would like to make the Bice Group itself a greener company. But, because of its size — it has restaurants in Asia, Europe, Africa, North and South America, and the Middle East — it’s difficult to make sweeping mandates.

“It’s this $60 million monster I can’t change,” he said. Some of the countries in which their restaurants reside don’t even have organic ingredients, his sister added.

Respect for predecessor

Raffaele Ruggeri said he respects what his Eugene predecessor, local restaurateur Cordy Jensen, built at Oregon Electric Station, and understands that it is a local institution. (Jensen could not be reached for comment Wednesday.)

He said he wants to respect that legacy, and noted that the Bice Group, which is almost 90 years old, and the century-plus Oregon Electric Station are in the same age group.

He fell in love with the building when he walked in, Ruggeri said, and remodeling will mainly be a matter of bringing more light into the restaurant, and creating spaces to easily accommodate, for example, larger groups.

“We have 18 people in our family,” Rossella Ruggeri said, and it’s not been easy to find local restaurants that accommodate them when they all go out to eat.

The menu will be traditional Italian food and Pacific Northwest-influenced dishes, Raffaele Ruggeri and Connor said. And there will be a variety of price points, Ruggeri said, roughly in the mid-range of restaurants. Appetizers, for example, will range from about $5 to $13, he anticipates, with entrees going from $18 to $38, with the higher end being premium, organic meat.

In addition to wine, he also will be installing taps for 13 beers — “all local breweries.” And he is hoping to have music Thursday through Saturday nights, with the type of music changing as the night wears on to reflect the clientele.

Family steeped in business

With the Eugene restaurant, Raffaele and Rossella are returning to their family’s roots in the business. The Bice Group was founded almost 90 years ago in Milan by their grandmother, Beatrice Ruggeri, who opened a modest neighborhood trattoria at the urging of her friends and neighbors, Raffaele Ruggeri said.

The restaurant did well, he said, and his grandmother developed a reputation for fine food and hospitality. What thrust it onto the world stage was the blossoming of Milan Fashion Week, he said. The restaurant was located just about in the middle of where the massive trade show was held and international models, designers and the rich and famous who follow fashion began coming to the first Bice restaurant.

The company began to expand outside Italy, to other cities frequented by its jet-setting clientele, Raffaele Ruggeri said.

Like many fine dining companies, Bice Group was hit hard by the recession, closing a number of restaurants.

Today, the company, which often partners with other investors, is growing again. It has 28 eateries around the world ranging from Italian fine dining to modest pizzerias, is opening eight more this year, and has contracts to open six more next year and five the year after that. Ruggeri is also working on multi-restaurant deals in China and Russia.

The family owns the restaurants in the United States, but licenses restaurants overseas to franchisees. The licensing arrangement allows the company to maintain control, to ensure quality — and also require that their management be Italian, Ruggeri said.

But the Eugene restaurant will be special to his family, he said. He said he wants it to be elegant, but also a place that welcomes everyone from wealthy business people to college students.

The restaurant business, he and his sister said, is part of them.

“Hopefully, some day one of our kids will take it over,” Rossella Ruggeri said.

Follow Ilene on Twitter @ialeshire. Email ilene.aleshire@registerguard.com.