NORTH BEND — As construction crews put finishing touches on the North Bend Hotel in preparation for a November move-in day, many downtown merchants have begun to wonder, where will its residents park?

This fall, the 1920s-era hotel will complete its transformation into workforce housing with 24 studios and eight one-bedroom apartments, plus a manager’s apartment. Located on the corner of Sherman and Virginia avenues in downtown, the hotel is adjacent to a number of businesses, including a small natural foods store, a pawn shop, a gift and clothing store, and a couple of bars and restaurants. Most of those merchants fear hotel tenants will take up what street parking is available on Sherman.

“When you hear from your customers and your members that they decided not to come in and shop with you because it was too difficult to park, you would be concerned,” said Deb Krough, the general manager of the Coos Head Food Store.

On the flip side, she said renovations to the building make downtown look better.

“And there is the potential that the people occupying that building could become our customers,” Krough added.

Betty Tamm, the executive director of Umpqua Community Development Corp., which owns the hotel, said parking shouldn’t be too much of a concern, because some nearby city parking lots allow 12-hour parking at night. Plus, in a similar apartment complex in downtown Roseburg, Tamm said, only a quarter to a third of the residents owned vehicles. That would translate to about 11 people in North Bend.

The city isn’t requiring special parking for the hotel. It wasn’t necessary in the past.

“It is not anticipated that the residents of the Hotel North Bend will have a considerable need for on-street or off-street parking,” North Bend City Administrator Jan Willis stated in a March 10, 2008, letter.

A 1997 parking study identified more than 1,600 total parking spaces in downtown. Even with peak parking in the late afternoon, less than 50 percent spaces occupied, it said. According to Willis’ letter, there are 276 public on-street parking spaces within a block of the hotel, and there are 58 public off-street parking spaces in three city lots. All but 20 spaces are limited to 2-hour parking between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m.

“Public parking will therefore be available to hotel tenants on an open basis from 4 p.m. until 10 a.m. every day,” Willis wrote.

Community Development Director David Voss said the city also may add more parking in front of North Bend City Hall. Plus, there have been some preliminary discussions on developing permit parking for downtown area residents.

At this point, Voss said he didn’t see a major problem with downtown parking, although hotel residents may have to hoof it to get home.

“For one thing, I don’t think all of them will have cars,” Voss said. “The ones that do, a lot of them will be at work during the day.”

Brenda Sund, the owner of Epiphany & Co., lives and works in the Oddfellows building across the street from the hotel. Since moving into the building, she says she’s received dozens of parking tickets. She hopes the city will come up with some better parking solutions, and thinks permit parking could make North Bend some money.

“It’s just going to get worse if there are 10-plus new cars that are trying to fit themselves into downtown North Bend overnight,” Sund said.

She described the problem as a matter of perception. While there is parking, it doesn’t matter when the public believes there isn’t.

Roger Scott, the owner of Roger’s Zoo, isn’t distressed.

“You come and get me when this street is packed,” he said.

Sometimes, when Little Theatre on the Bay has a show, parking is limited, he said, but otherwise it’s not a problem. Plus, a downtown filled with cars could be a good thing.

“Tourists might stop because they might think it’s busy,” Scott said. “All these people are scared to death that it’s going to keep people from coming to their businesses. ... If people want to come to your business, they’ll walk blocks.”