Benny Westcott
Sweet Home businessman Josh Victor last week offered the Linn County Board of Commissioners $1 million to purchase the former Willamette Industries mill site in Sweet Home.
Victor owns Sweet Home Real Estate Restoration and said he has 32 homes just north of the former mill site.
Linn County foreclosed on the nearly 160-acre former mill site about 11 years ago, after then-owner Western States Land Reliance Trust failed to pay $500,000 in property taxes. The property was to be developed into a housing complex.
Victor proposed making four annual payments of $250,000 each, and told commissioners he would begin making property tax payments in the first year.
Linn County Board of Commissioners Chairman Roger Nyquist said he is ready to dispense of the property “and see it utilized by the community as an asset. We’ve done the heavy lifting and now it’s time to get our money back.”
Victor started making efforts to purchase the property about four years ago, and has made multiple offers on the property in the past, he said.
He said of the property, “Nobody’s done anything with it for so long, and I feel like it would be beneficial to the community to get something going on it.”
One of his ideas for the property is to build infrastructure on the property that would help the Jamboree move to a more permanent grounds on a portion of the former mill site land that was deeded to the City of Sweet Home in 2017 for development as a park space. The land Victor is looking to purchase is on the south border of the city owned land.
Currently, there are obstacles to putting on the Jamboree at the city’s 220 acres because there is not access to water, sewer or power at the site. Victor said he hopes to remedy this issue by putting water, sewer and power infrastructure on the property he made an offer on, as well as streets, which would help the city also acquire those services on their land.
“My main prerogative is to try to figure out a way to get them water, power and sewer over there,” he said.
“That way, the Jamboree can develop a permanent Jamboree grounds instead of doing it at the high school each year.”
“That would be a way better area for them,” he said of the city-owned former quarry property, which the city and Oregon Jamboree organizers have proposed turning into a permanent festival venue and park. “They could do more than one event a year if they had a permanent facility.”
“If we end up getting the Jamboree to go more than once a year, then that brings in a whole bunch of more revenue,” he added. “If it was going a few times a year, it would be a lot easier to entice bigger businesses to come in, whether it be hotel chains, fast food places or malls. If the town fills up to 60,000 people a few times a year, then you’re going to have a lot more draw for those big businesses.”
Victor has other ideas for the property as well. He said he would like to put in a drive-in theater and some new housing.
“I just want something to draw people to our town,” he said.
He also stated that he’s “trying to develop just a little bit more employment in our town. That’s what I’d like to do.”
Victor also said he hopes that developing housing on the property could bring down the cost per resident of a proposed Local Improvement District in the Willow Street neighborhood, a project proposal that ruffled the feathers of some citizens at a late February Sweet Home city council meeting because of the projected price that residents would have to pay under the plan. The proposed LID would provide city water and sewer, paved streets and fire hydrants to the area.
“If I make a deal with the county before the LID’s all finalized, I can add more lots, and that would lower the cost for all the people that live in that area,” Victor said.
He said that there are already 18 lots that are ready to be developed off the end of Willow Street.
“If they’re already platted and ready, it wouldn’t be too hard to include roads and sewers.”
As Victor has already made his intent to purchase the former mill site clear to county officials, he says it’s now up to the county to determine if, and how quickly, things will proceed.
“I’m kind of waiting to go. I’d rather get started on it sooner rather than later,” he said.
Victor said he expects the county will decide whether or not it wants to make a deal with him sometime within the next 30 days.