The city of Philomath has stopped looking for a developer for its vacant property at 14th and Main streets — at least for now.
After an executive session that ran nearly two hours Monday night, the Philomath City Council voted 7-0 to direct city staff “not to issue an RFP on the property located at 14th and Main unless otherwise directed in the future.”
The council met behind closed doors from 8:23 to 10:17 p.m. The executive session was called to consult with legal counsel about current or likely litigation, to deliberate on real property negotiations and to consider information or records that are exempt by law from public inspection.
In an interview after the meeting, City Manager Chris Workman said the vote reverses the direction staff had been following.
“So the last direction the staff had was to prepare an RFP and see if we could notice it to the public and get several firms to come in and look at the property,” Workman said. “The direction we’ve got now is to hold off on that effort and wait until we’re directed otherwise.”
Workman said the city still wants to see the site developed.
“The city doesn’t have any interest in keeping the property long term, so we’re still interested in seeing some type of development there,” he said.
Asked whether the city is talking with a specific developer or buyer, Workman said he could not disclose that information. When asked whether the city is negotiating with anyone, he said, “We’re not in negotiations with anybody directly right now on that property.”
Workman expects more information to come out in the near future.
“I imagine the public will hear more about the city council’s plans for that within the next six months,” he said. “It’s not something that we want to sit on long term, but it might take a little while to figure out exactly what we want to do with it.”
The city bought the property, which covers two tax lots, from Denny Nusbaum in summer 2020 for $285,000, using Urban Renewal Agency funds.
For many years the site was a service garage and was the location of a three-bay car wash. The city had tried to buy the property about four years before the 2020 purchase, but that deal fell apart over environmental concerns.
Testing requested by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality found three underground storage tanks, a hydraulic lift station and soil contaminated with petroleum, lead-based paint and asbestos. The Nusbaums cleaned up the soil. Last year, the city hired BB&A Environmental to finish the cleanup with Urban Renewal dollars, on a low bid of $37,955.
Monday’s vote is the latest turn for a project that has struggled to get off the ground. The city had been seeking a mixed-use development at the site. Two firms went through the city’s earlier RFP process and were interviewed in April by the City Council and the city’s Housing and Economic Development Committee.
Jamestown Development of Lake Oswego withdrew over the summer, citing other large projects. Both development teams eventually told the city they could no longer move forward. On Sept. 14, the council voted to overhaul the RFP and reissue it.
That revised approach would have opened the process to any interested firm and switched to a design-build model, in which one company handles both design and construction.
