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Pendleton tries to jump-start downtown area
Monday, May 18, 2009 | No comments posted.
PENDLETON (AP) - More than a dozen businesses stand empty on Pendleton's usually-bustling Main Street, and that's just at ground level. More stand idle above, and darkened windows and "For Lease" signs are uncommonly common.
There are plans afoot to jump-start the area, but little consensus on how to do so.
On May 28 Oregon Public Broadcasting's "Think Out Loud" will be in town for a public discussion on the changing core area.
At a recent meeting of city officials, downtown business owners and a consulting firm, City Manager Larry Lehman noted the lack of consensus among those seeking to have their say.
Those seeking a spot at the table include the Pendleton Downtown Partnership, the Pendleton Chamber of Commerce, the 2010 Committee, the city council, urban renewal agency and planning commission, the Main Street Cowboys and Pendleton Round-Up Association.
Al Plute would like his St. George Plaza to be a downtown centerpiece but agrees with Lehman that agendas vary.
"To me what the first step is to decide what type of business you want in your downtown area - what do you want your downtown to look like?" he told the Pendleton East Oregonian newspaper.
He said that may ultimately be up to the property owners but that that may not revive the area.
Plute said he is trying to rent to people who will attract business and has turned down people because their business wouldn't do that.
"We have to have some kind of a 'theme' for downtown so people will come and see the theme," he said.
Regina Stockton owns the upmarket Rockin' G' Ranch catering to those with a yearning for Western themes and heads the Pendleton Downtown Partnership.
She said she would like the city to capitalize on Pendleton's western theme, something "big box" stores can't do.
It may be a logical strategy for a town that proudly retains one foot in the Old West.
It needs to involve something no one else has, Plute said.
How to pay for this remains an issue, and Pendleton has been here before.
There was the Oregon Downtown Development Association Resource Team study in 2006, the Destination Development study the same year and the Pendleton Strategic Transportation Plan in 2007, all with workshops and public meetings.
In a recent e-mail, Stockton acknowledged concerns about covering the same ground again.
So far, she said, nobody has come up with a plan to bring it all together.
There are plans afoot to jump-start the area, but little consensus on how to do so.
On May 28 Oregon Public Broadcasting's "Think Out Loud" will be in town for a public discussion on the changing core area.
At a recent meeting of city officials, downtown business owners and a consulting firm, City Manager Larry Lehman noted the lack of consensus among those seeking to have their say.
Those seeking a spot at the table include the Pendleton Downtown Partnership, the Pendleton Chamber of Commerce, the 2010 Committee, the city council, urban renewal agency and planning commission, the Main Street Cowboys and Pendleton Round-Up Association.
Al Plute would like his St. George Plaza to be a downtown centerpiece but agrees with Lehman that agendas vary.
"To me what the first step is to decide what type of business you want in your downtown area - what do you want your downtown to look like?" he told the Pendleton East Oregonian newspaper.
He said that may ultimately be up to the property owners but that that may not revive the area.
Plute said he is trying to rent to people who will attract business and has turned down people because their business wouldn't do that.
"We have to have some kind of a 'theme' for downtown so people will come and see the theme," he said.
Regina Stockton owns the upmarket Rockin' G' Ranch catering to those with a yearning for Western themes and heads the Pendleton Downtown Partnership.
She said she would like the city to capitalize on Pendleton's western theme, something "big box" stores can't do.
It may be a logical strategy for a town that proudly retains one foot in the Old West.
It needs to involve something no one else has, Plute said.
How to pay for this remains an issue, and Pendleton has been here before.
There was the Oregon Downtown Development Association Resource Team study in 2006, the Destination Development study the same year and the Pendleton Strategic Transportation Plan in 2007, all with workshops and public meetings.
In a recent e-mail, Stockton acknowledged concerns about covering the same ground again.
So far, she said, nobody has come up with a plan to bring it all together.
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