The Philomath City Council took action on two city-owned development properties at its Sept. 14 meeting to give the city manager more time to close a deal on a long-planned affordable housing project and also to restart the search for a developer for the 14th and Main mixed-use site after both finalist firms backed out.
Councilors voted unanimously to authorize City Manager Chris Workman to have until Nov. 14 to conclude negotiations with Commonwealth Development Corp. on a purchase-sale agreement for the city-owned lot at Main and 20th streets.
The city entered into an exclusive negotiating agreement with Commonwealth, a Wisconsin-based nonprofit, in September 2025 following council approval that August. That agreement was designed to run up to 120 days with two possible 60-day extensions, and Workman has already extended the deadline twice while the purchase-sale agreement is worked out.
City staff have said the agreement isn’t a typical one because of the low-income housing development the council wants to see on the site, and that most of the delay traces back to the long wait for a state funding cycle for affordable housing projects. A final draft of the purchase-sale agreement and an associated restrictive covenant is being prepared for council review next month.
The half-acre lot, which the city purchased in 2023, has been eyed for a three- or four-story apartment complex with a mix of studios and one- and two-bedroom units.
Later in the meeting, the council voted 6-0 to direct staff to overhaul and reissue the request for proposals for the city-owned property at 1348 Main St. after the two development teams that had qualified for the project told the city they could no longer move forward.
Rather than restart the qualification process, staff proposed opening the RFP to any interested firm or team and shifting to a design-build approach, in which a single company would handle both design and construction.
“We want to tweak the RFP and just do a general release,” Workman told the council. “We’ll open it up as a design-build RFP, so we’ll be looking for a designing construction firm to see that, respond to us, give us their plan, and then we will contract with them to help with final design and construction of the project.”
Workman wants to expose the availability of the project to a wider pool of prospective applicants.
“We’re going to rebait the hook and throw it back out in the ocean instead of putting it into the pool — we’re going ocean fishing at this point because we’re going to put it way out there and see if we get some responses,” he said.
The updated RFP keeps the city’s preference for ground-floor commercial space but loosens the requirement for the upper floors, which had previously called for either a boutique hotel or residential units. The new version allows for a mix of both — long-term apartment rentals alongside a smaller short-term hotel component.
Councilor Jessica Andrade asked staff to clarify whether the mixed-use vision for the upper floors had changed.
“Based on the feedback and discussions that we had with the two respondents last time, we kind of landed on the idea of a mix in that upper for residential, maybe some long term, maybe some short term,” Workman said, adding that earlier conversations suggested a roughly 50-room boutique hotel might be too large and that something closer to 20 or 25 rooms could be more feasible.
Mayor Christiopher McMorran said he wants the responding firms to help shape the final business plan.
“I want to hear from a firm what they think would be the best business decision, rather than us trying to kind of predetermine a business decision,” McMorran said. “I still want us to have a clear role in the process and making sure that it fits with the community, but I don’t want to force something on a private party if it’s not actually going to make sense.”
Workman said the design-build process will also require firms to describe their plans for public engagement as part of their proposals.
“It’s not build this, it’s help us with the design, and part of helping us as a community means public engagement with folks,” he said. “That’ll be an important component to the responses we get — what does that look like?”
How about just selling the lots to private owners and letting them decide what to build based on the market, consistent with existing zoning.