The New Era - All about Sweet Home since 1929

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 commissi...