New library for Troutdale, too
From the Gresham Outlook:
Multnomah County Commissioner Lonnie Roberts is officially recommending the downtown Troutdale Discovery Block for the long-proposed branch library facility.
Roberts called the property at Second Avenue and Historic Columbia River Highway a “keystone development in the center of historic downtown Troutdale” in a news release issued Thursday afternoon, July 3. He and fellow commissioners will discuss and likely vote to recommend the site at the Thursday, July 17, Commission board meeting, said Roberts’ assistant Tom Mack.
“As a result of extensive negotiations, District 4, the Library, and Facilities and Property Management agree that the Discovery Block is ideal as the site for the new branch,” Roberts said in the release. “An accessible downtown location, a solid civic presence, adaptive logistics and design, and a competitive financial structure all contribute to this recommendation.”
Discovery Block developer Mike Greenslade of Bremik Construction Company recently submitted a letter of intent to county officials to solidify costs and lease terms.
“If it’s acceptable to county commissioners, I think we’ve got a deal,” Greenslade said.
The siting process is a couple months off schedule because of a longer-than-expected negotiating process, Multnomah library officials said. They’d planned to announce a recommendation in May for either the Discovery Block or the Gateway Corner at 257th Street, but decided on additional interviews with Greenslade and Dean Hurford, owner of the Gateway property, to discuss financial and other proposal specifics.
Hurford withdrew his proposal in May, citing other development projects competing for his time and a belief the Discovery Block would work better for the county’s plans and financial resources.
“We left on good terms,” said Hurford, owner of Bumper’s Bar & Grill and Scrubby’s Car Wash in Fairview. “When it got down to final negotiations, I thought the (Discovery) site might be a better fit for the county’s needs.”
Hurford briefly re-entered negotiations, Mack and library officials said, after citizens expressed concerns about Hurford’s proposal getting full consideration. The Discovery Block proposal still came out as the more favorable of the two.
“The numbers just weren’t competitive in terms of trying to get the best possible situation we can get for the library,” said Vailey Oehlke, deputy director of Multnomah County Libraries. “We’re at a point where we’re pretty comfortable making a recommendation to the board of county commissioners for their consideration.”
The site calls for a mixed-use development with the approximately 6,000-square-foot library situated on the ground floor. The Discovery Block meets the county’s criteria for on- and off-street parking and otherwise fulfills structural needs of a Multnomah County library branch, said Mike Sublett of the county’s Facilities asset management section.
“The property is poised for development right now, and the transaction is financially well structured,” he said. “It provides a very solid, visible civic presence, and it’s very adaptive to the library’s logistics.”
The site selection process reached one milestone late last year when the Multnomah Board of Commissioners eliminated the former Lamb’s Thriftway supermarket site – at 282nd Avenue and Stark Street – from active consideration.
Troutdale Mayor Paul Thalhofer was among city officials who supported either of the downtown sites ahead of the more suburban Stark Street setting. He recently reiterated enthusiasm for the project after months of slow negotiations.
“When it does happen, it’ll be exciting,” Thalhofer said. “It will be very beneficial to downtown.”
Emphasizing that the final decision rests with the commissioners, Sublett believes the Discovery Block has a lot to offer.
“If approved, it will be a fantastic location for a library,” he said.
Posted on July 7, 2008
Comments
(Note: Comments are the views of their authors, and no one else.)