Urban renewal advisory committee recommends Palindrome Properties as preferred developer for Northwest Rubber site; Leland analysis says proposal likely to net—

The McMinnville Urban Renewal Advisory Committee recommended Palindrome Properties Group, LLC as the preferred developer to redevelop the vacant Northwest Rubber site, and advised the McMinnville Urban Renewal Agency to authorize a memorandum of understanding that would let the city begin negotiations with that team, Community Development Director Heather Richards said at an Urban Renewal work session April 23.

The site — a roughly 3.5‑acre parcel in the Northeast Gateway area the city purchased on Oct. 23, 2023 — was bought for about $4.25 million plus closing costs with a loan from the city’s wastewater fund, Richards told councilors. The urban renewal agency is currently making interest‑only payments; a balloon payment is due in five years, she said. “This is a work session, so, really, it’s to get you the information you need to make informed decisions,” Richards told the council and urban renewal board before introducing the selection recommendation.

Why it matters: the project would be funded with urban renewal (tax increment) dollars, which the city says cannot be used for general‑fund purposes. The council and the Urban Renewal Board will decide whether to authorize an MOU (listed on the agenda as Resolution 2025‑03) that would allow staff to begin negotiating a development agreement; any final development agreement would return to the board for public approval.

What Palindrome proposed and why it scored well

Palindrome’s concept presented to the city includes a two‑phase program: a housing first phase and a later commercial/hospitality phase. In materials submitted to the city and discussed at the meeting, Palindrome described a first phase of housing—presented to the selection committee as “88 units” with a mix of market‑rate and affordable units—and a second phase that would include a 51‑room hotel and about 11,000 square feet of a market‑style hall with small ‘‘micro‑retail’’ vendor spaces. The proposal also references design features that reuse…