The Southtown area of Coos Bay, which the city has been trying to develop for several years, is attracting renewed interest.

The Coos Bay Urban Renewal Agency and the South Coast Development Council apparently have received calls from a company expressing interest in possibly locating on the Southtown site.

The agency held a work session on Thursday to discuss the possibility of contracting with the SCDC to provide additional assistance in developing the area. Agency members were mum on the identity of the possible developer, but discussed the benefits of hiring some type of economic assistance for the city through urban renewal funds at length.

“(The company) wanted to keep this private until they could line up some property for their development,” said agency member Joe Benetti.

The city lost the interest of Home Depot for the Southtown site after three years of fruitless negotiations. The company later agreed to develop property owned by the Coquille Economic Development Corp. in North Bend.

Talks between the city and the home-improvement giant were bogged down by prevailing wage and private property issues and in the end, a large piece of vacant property with a single owner became more appealing to the company, Benetti said.

The new interest brought up discussions of how much time city of Coos Bay staff can spend on economic development projects, and how time-consuming those projects can be.

“We lost that deal with Home Depot because we were so slow. And for a while, I was unhappy with (Coos Bay City Manager Scott McClure) and I shouldn't have been, because economic development is not his job,” agency member Jeff McKeown said. “And shame on us if we miss another opportunity, because there aren't a lot of companies like Home Depot running around. We have a couple looking now and we shouldn't mess this up.”

The SCDC works to encourage businesses to locate on the South Coast, and to retain or expand current businesses. But SCDC only lines up the prospective business or development, putting the companies together with private landowners or representatives. Hiring the SCDC to help the city and private property owners throughout the development of Southtown would be requesting the organization to go beyond its duties.

Contracting with another agency to assist with the development of Southtown through the urban renewal funding is within the agency's allowed activities, as Southtown is located in the Urban Renewal District. But some agency members were concerned the community would see the money for this contract as a way to fund SCDC, rather than getting Southtown the attention it deserves.

“My issue is not to fund SCDC with urban renewal dollars, but to be able to market a project that is eminently marketable,” agency Chairman Kevin Stufflebean said.

The city used to donate $50,000 a year to SCDC, but that has shrunk to an annual $10,000 donation for the economic development group that markets the entire South Coast to businesses and retail chains equally. McKeown said the URA contract was another way to increase funding to the organization, but that would not be the only consideration, as Southtown would now have someone leading the development project.

“We need to fund economic development. We gotta start driving our own economy. It's the only way we can affect our city budget,” McKeown added. “We don't have the money in the general budget, but we do have it in the urban renewal fund, and here's a way to legitimately fund economic development with that money.”

Agency member Jon Eck agreed, and said that without SCDC, Home Depot wouldn't have considered locating in the South Coast at all.

“I think the bottom line is SCDC brought Home Depot to the table and sold them on that area, and that fell through. But if we want to develop that area, we need help to do it,” Eck said.

Finding the time

The years of negotiations with Home Depot included numerous phone calls and meetings between private property owners, city officials, lawyers for Home Depot and state labor officials, for a deal that eventually fell through. That was time taken by city staff to develop Southtown - time the staff doesn't have to spare, McClure said.

“If we want someone to be able to really focus on that one parcel and help locate businesses there, it would be great to have some more help. It can be pretty time consuming and with economic development you never know if it's going to work out,” McClure said.

The Home Depot project also was expensive. According to Benetti, the agency spent around $100,000 on a lawyer in the Portland area to communicate with the company's lawyers.

Although any future negotiations could result in a similar situation, hiring SCDC would help put the project in a single set of hands.

“I have talked about a contract to do some economic development work for the city. They have been increasingly strapped in recent years, and it makes sense,” said Ron Opitz, executive director of SCDC. “They would like to see something go in the Southtown area, some type of big-box retailer or other large development.”

Developing Southtown could help the city and the community, Benetti said.

“Whether it's this group or another group, someone is going to come in and develop this site,” he added. “Any development we have in the area can only help the city tax-wise.”

Although agency member John Muenchrath was concerned there was no guarantee the money would pan out for the area, Stufflebean said the agency had money to spend on the potential development which the city didn't.

The agency requested McClure arrange for Opitz to present a proposal on the Southtown development contract with SCDC as soon as possible.

€ In other business at the work session, the agency discussed the repairs and operations of the Egyptian Theatre, and a possible management agreement with the Egyptian Theatre Preservation Association.

The agency is waiting on estimates for repair work to the theater from Reese Electric before setting a timetable for opening and turning over manager of the theater.