Independence Landing’s New Construction Growth
By Anne Scheck
For longtime citizens of Independence, the events at the last city council meeting might have seemed like an echo of the past. A sincere and plain-spoken entrepreneur told councilors he had a vision for a mixed-use building – one that combines commercial and office space on the lower two floors and puts residences atop on the third one, in easy walking distance to the Willamette River. The building could help revitalize the downtown, bringing in new business and offering residents a place to live in a scenic, central part of town.
This is the same concept sought for Independence Station more than a decade ago, where construction workers once toiled – and which remains starkly unfinished near the corner of Main Street and Monmouth Avenue.
However, the proposed new building will be on a lot made shovel-ready by the city at Independence Landing, and the people behind this venture – a pair of local realtors – might dissuade any sense of déjà vu. This is no outside developer.
“This is basically the history of our life – Independence,” said Aaron Young, who, with his wife Amy, has a storefront realty office downtown. “We stand here ready to ask you to take a chance on us,” he said.
And that is just what the city council decided to do, on the last Tuesday in November: take a chance on the new development, by declaring one of the lots at Independence Landing “surplus” city property, and agreeing to sell it to Mr. Young and his spouse for $210,000.
“It has been our desire and plan not to hold the property,” said Mayor John McArdle shortly before the vote was taken. Then, after the unanimous decision to sell the parcel to the Youngs, he declared: “I am very excited about this.” Though several city councilors seemed swayed by the proposed contract, which didn’t offer any guarantees to the Youngs of tax breaks or fee waivers, the document remains unsigned as of this writing. The contract alludes to the potential burden of “downstream costs” by the Youngs, leaving open the possibility for further negotiation and changes.
The contract has not been executed, confirmed David Clyne, Independence city manager. And, “per council direction can be modified in non-substantial manners without being returned for further consideration,” he stated. In fact, the city manager can execute it – if there are no significant changes to the document as presented to the council. “I think the remaining issues are relatively minor and will be dealt with,” he added.
The move now means more land will be owned privately than by the city at Independence Landing, which bought 18 acres along the Willamette River from a concrete company more than two years ago. Since then, infrastructure that includes street-scaping to carve out a new thoroughfare – Osprey Lane – has been put in place.
For the Youngs, the opportunity is a dream come true. “I was born with a hammer in my hand,” said Mr. Young, noting that he has been in construction for nearly a quarter of a century. Financing is already lined up to begin building this spring on the lot, which is adjacent to the hotel’s, just south of C Street. The building will be about 36,000 square feet.
Mr. Young, the son of a doctor who used to practice locally, lives on a farm outside town and recalls an idyllic time in Independence that he’d love to see return. “I used to sip cherry cokes at Taylor’s,” he said, referring to the long-shuttered downtown soda fountain. The streets of the town are where he spent some of his boyhood, and he said he has been struck by how smitten visitors seem to be with the appearance of the downtown, which doesn’t have as much to offer as it could for keeping them after they make a stop to stroll on Main Street.
“We see people get in their cars and leave,” he said, noting that when he watches that happen from the window of his real-estate office, “we really wish there was more opportunity.”
For example, at the same council meeting in which Mr. Young and his wife, Amy, clinched approval for their project, city officials confirmed that a business welcomed by them at the previous council session – a Washington-based distillery – had pulled the plug on that enterprise before it even opened its doors at the former city hall, where it reportedly had unloaded equipment for its operation. Around the same time, a Main Street restaurant shut down, a Hawaiian-style food eatery that was highlighted in the mayor’s annual state-of-the-city report this past year as a onetime food truck that had successfully expanded.
Though there are plans for several new business openings in 2018 – the old Taylor’s will become a dessert bar, a wine-tasting room is moving in across the street and a craft-beer establishment is set to open down the block -- there has been near-constant “churn” in downtown Independence in refurbished buildings since the deep recession, with merchants moving in, then moving out, allegedly unable to sustain the rent increases from the up-scaling efforts.
The answer may lie with the long-sought hotel, by Tokola Development, and its plans for residential development. The site has planted hope for both local invigoration of the downtown and as a draw for tourism.
The approval by the Independence City Council to Tokola and the Youngs follows similar strategy by Portland, which has sold former industrial land this year in an area known as East Bayside at low-cost prices for relatively high-level, mixed-use development. However, the aim of such projects differs markedly: Portland is under pressure to develop new housing centers; Independence is trying to develop a new revenue source.
To some extent, Independence is banking on tax-increment funds (TIF) from Independence Landing to fortify itself in the future. TIF allows cities to use property-tax revenue from such projects toward community improvement, and, to some degree, these revenues are more free of the constraints of ordinary property tax.
In the case of Independence, TIF comes from its urban renewal district, which will make it a new and more flexible revenue stream for the city. However, TIF planning is not without pitfalls. Five years ago, a report from the Association or Oregon Renewal Agencies found that “it is important to remember that TIF revenues do not equal the dollars available for projects.” Instead, TIF revenues are “used to pay debt service on debt that pays for project costs,” the report stated. “Thus, the financial feasibility analysis needs to make general assumptions on the type of debt that will be incurred by the urban renewal agency, and the terms associated with that debt,” for example, interest rates, coverage ratios, reserve requirements, issuance costs, and amortization period.
At the feasibility stage, it is not necessary to have all of these assumptions nailed down, the report continues, but it is wise to try to consider them. The City of Independence, for instance, is so optimistic about the TIF proceeds in the future that it not only purchased the riverside land, it poured more than $3 million into building streets and laying the underpinnings for utilities before the planned hotel, apartments and condominiums that are the cornerstone of Independence Landing.
The Youngs are confident their project will bring in new business tenants – some have already said they will sign on, Mr. Young noted. As for being compared to Independence Station, which once was planned for a similar use, Mr. Young reiterated he has years of experienced in construction. “We know what a failed building looks like,” said Mr. Young, More importantly, perhaps, he said: “I am a local and I love it here.”
The CIVICS LESSON: Beauty is in the Eye of the Building Permit
In cities, it goes by a subhead in the city code, but City Councilor Marilyn Morton may have nailed the best name more than a dozen years ago when she proclaimed it “legislating aesthetics.” This is what the architectural representative of Tokola Properties asked the City of Independence to do on the last Tuesday of last month, when Jim Walker, of Studio C in Portland, asked the council to change lot and height requirements.
The problem was that the garage doors for the planned townhouses might look too dominant otherwise -- so they acceded to his request for modifications. In doing so, Councilor Morton referred to the “snout house” issue several years ago, when the city wanted to eliminate homes that had the garage project from the house, making it closer to the curb of the street than the rest of the home. After a protest that drew both snout-house dwellers and developers who thought even the term itself was over the top, the city council abandoned the effort. It has since focused attention on clean-up of certain properties, to the apparent gratitude of local homeowners.
The problem was that the garage doors for the planned townhouses might look too dominant otherwise -- so they acceded to his request for modifications. In doing so, Councilor Morton referred to the “snout house” issue several years ago, when the city wanted to eliminate homes that had the garage project from the house, making it closer to the curb of the street than the rest of the home. After a protest that drew both snout-house dwellers and developers who thought even the term itself was over the top, the city council abandoned the effort. It has since focused attention on clean-up of certain properties, to the apparent gratitude of local homeowners.
The INDY HOP: The Incredible Shrinking Parking Spot Saga
Is it you, your car or your parking space? When Planning Commissioner Odilon Campos-Santos mentioned his concern over changes by the City of Independence to downsize parking spaces, he touched on a topic being addressed in a mini-media frenzy.
Who is to blame when cities collapse their minimum parking spaces, and dings and door dents occur? The answer is: Nobody and everybody. Most cities have adopted the minimum 9-foot-width -- down from 10-foot-width of your grandfather's Oldsmobile days. Independence has done the same -- and shrunk parallel parking to eight feet wide. But while some fuel-efficient cars now slide right into those spaces with room to spare, some of the most popular automobiles in America are a tight fit. Depending on your viewpoint, the van and truck-drivers are either space hoggers or being unfairly squeezed.
Unsurprisingly, a couple of European firms have partnered with the wizards at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to create a car that folds up to accommodate even the smallest parking spaces. So far there is no sign of them on the streets of Independence, but a few tiny cars that look like motorized bubbles have been spotted. Maybe these micro-cars are a wave of the future on Main Street.
Who is to blame when cities collapse their minimum parking spaces, and dings and door dents occur? The answer is: Nobody and everybody. Most cities have adopted the minimum 9-foot-width -- down from 10-foot-width of your grandfather's Oldsmobile days. Independence has done the same -- and shrunk parallel parking to eight feet wide. But while some fuel-efficient cars now slide right into those spaces with room to spare, some of the most popular automobiles in America are a tight fit. Depending on your viewpoint, the van and truck-drivers are either space hoggers or being unfairly squeezed.
Unsurprisingly, a couple of European firms have partnered with the wizards at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to create a car that folds up to accommodate even the smallest parking spaces. So far there is no sign of them on the streets of Independence, but a few tiny cars that look like motorized bubbles have been spotted. Maybe these micro-cars are a wave of the future on Main Street.
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