The Philomath City Council voted at its July 13 meeting to approve a request for proposals for the city-owned property at Main Street and South 14th Street with the document to be sent to the two development teams that qualified for the project.
Hanlon Development of The Dalles and Jamestown Development of Lake Oswego will receive the RFP following interviews the council and the Housing and Economic Development Committee conducted with both firms in April. The city is aiming to develop the site as a mixed-use project that could include a boutique hotel and housing components.
City Manager Chris Workman said the schedule is designed to keep the process moving while giving developers adequate time to prepare.
“I think the main thing there is the timeline that we’re looking at to give them some time, but hopefully have everything due by the first part of August,” Workman said. “They know that this is coming so they’ve already done some prep work because we’re trying to be timely.”
Under the RFP schedule, developers must email their intent to submit a proposal by 5 p.m. July 30 with full proposals due by Aug. 4. Workman said the proposals will go to the council the following day to give councilors roughly a week to review and score them before an Aug. 10 meeting when a development team is expected to be selected.
City staff will prepare a score sheet for each councilor to use in evaluating the proposals.
“At the meeting in August you’ll have total scores and have some deliberation and be able to select one of them,” Workman said. “The firm that you select will move forward into an agreement with us to help negotiate what the development of the property will look like.”
Workman described the arrangement as a partnership that would continue through the planning stages before the city steps back.
“We’ll look at a boutique hotel together; we’ll look at housing together,” he said. “So, all of that analysis we will look at and evaluate, and then the agreement will also state at what point the city’s going to kind of cut the umbilical cord and let them do their thing as a private development, and we’re just going to become either an ex-landlord or an ex-property owner/landlord, whatever that agreement ends up looking like.”
Mayor Christopher McMorran asked whether a city committee that helped initiate the development discussions could also take part in scoring or reviewing the proposals.
“I’ve appreciated getting some of the input from the Housing and Economic Development Committee during this process,” McMorran said. “Do you think we’d be able to have them also score it or have them involved in the review somehow? Just because I want to make sure we’re following up since they kind of initiated this part.”
Workman agreed the committee’s involvement would be worthwhile.
Councilor Diane Crocker raised concerns about building height allowed under the RFP. The city’s C-1 zoning (central commercial district) permits structures of up to eight stories.
“I do not believe there’s anything taller than a three-story building in our town right now, and it seems to me that an eight-story building would be very awkward and it wouldn’t really fit into our town,” Crocker said. “I realized there would be more money made if they could do eight stories, but I think aesthetically, five stories should be the most.”
Workman said the eight-story allowance reflects the city’s current development code and is referenced in the RFP for that reason, but noted the city retains input on the outcome.
“We’re still going to partner with them on what we want it to look like,” he said.
McMorran said height hasn’t come up as a priority in conversations with the two firms.
“To be fair, I don’t think any of the developers we talked to want to put an eight-story building in,” he said.
Crocker also urged staff to keep the scoring turnaround tight once proposals arrive. McMorran suggested moving forward once enough scores are in. Workman added that a majority of the council would be sufficient to proceed.
The motion to approve the RFP passed on a 6-0 vote (one councilor absent).
