Bend advisory board reviews $8.9 million draft core-area investment strategy after property owner describes site troubles

Property owners and planning staff laid out competing views of opportunity and barriers in Bend’s central district on a meeting agenda dominated by a draft investment strategy that would direct $8.9 million over five years toward private development incentives, public activation projects and administrative capacity.

Connie Peterson, identified in the meeting as the property owner of 355 Northeast Second Street, and Christie Schmidt, identified as a broker with Compass Commercial, described a 1.5-acre parcel containing a 20,000-square-foot commercial building that they said has been difficult to sell. Peterson said the property has experienced increased houseless encampments, drug activity, graffiti and waste in the last 18 months, and that the owners have paid for private security and biohazard cleanup. Schmidt said an engineering detail in a prior platform-development decision depicts a future street connection that would bisect the property and remove roughly one-third of usable development land, which they said reduced buyer interest and required price reductions.

"We still believe this is an extremely unique opportunity for the city of Bend given its size and location," Christie Schmidt told the advisory board, asking the board to consider the site's…