World Photo by Lou Sennick

Finally, there is an answer to a question on many Bay Area residents’ lips:

Will Home Depot ever come to North Bend?

The answer is yes.

The Coquille Economic Development Corp., the business arm of the Coquille Indian Tribe, has finalized a lease agreement with the home improvement retail chain, to develop a 130,000- square-foot store on the Ko Kwel Wharf property, a 50.5-acre parcel located north of The Mill Casino-Hotel in North Bend. The Home Depot is the keystone of the Ko Kwel Wharf Project, a 35- to 38-acre mixed retail development. Construction could begin as early as spring, a CEDCO press release states.

CEDCO spokesman Ray Doering said the agreement is big news for CEDCO and the community.

“It means we’re going to have a Home Depot store and more importantly, our development plan is taking a big step forward,” he said. “By doing this, we open the door for the rest of it.”

The agreement comes nearly two years after the project was first announced to the community by CEDCO officials, not to mention two years of work to prepare the site, two years of negotiations with Home Depot representatives and two years of overcoming other obstacles to the project. Bringing Home Depot to North Bend even required an act of Congress, said CEDCO CEO Brady Scott.

“For people who look at the property and see little if any activity, it seemed that nothing was going to happen,” Scott stated in the press release. “But behind the scenes there has been non-stop activity ever since we announced The Home Depot’s interest in locating on the wharf. In terms of developing a former industrial site, we have been on the fast-track every step of the way.

“Just in this past year we gained state approval for our work on two environmental issues after receiving approval for a storage tank clean-up plan that we developed. We also resolved wetlands questions and worked out an agreement for a new intersection and railroad crossing.”

Public Law 110-75 created an exemption for the Coquille Tribe from the Indian Non-intercourse Act, a nearly 200-year-old federal law that restricted the sale and lease of tribally owned land. The exemption eliminates potential legal concerns over a long-term lease agreement between the tribe and Home Depot and was a key to finalizing the agreement.

“Throughout this process, we have been fortunate to enjoy a great amount of support from our Tribal Council and members of the Coquille Tribe; from our region’s elected officials and agency officials at all three levels of government and from business leaders and citizens throughout the South Coast,” Scott said in the release.

CEDCO and Home Depot planners are working on a timetable for building the store, as some outstanding property issues need to be resolved. Those issues include obtaining a storm water permit from the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality and completing engineering for a traffic light at Stanton Avenue at a new street that will lead to the Home Depot and wharf property.

Plans call for the Home Depot will be surrounded by more than 150,000 square feet of retail shops, restaurants and entertainment venues, with a bayfront walkway that will connect to the city of North Bend’s urban renewal project.