Behind the rows of SUVs and “new cars” banners along Stephens Street at Oak Avenue sits an unobtrusive sage and olive-green building.

Passersby might not even notice it, unless they catch a glimpse of the potted plants and comfy sofas through tall windows that wrap around the building. At night, a soft, burnt-

orange glows from light fixtures that hang down from ruby-red ceilings.

It may have a low profile, but the new tenants of the old Hansen Chevrolet showroom dream it will become a cultural hub for the city, and even transform the look and feel of downtown.

Dick Baltus and Ray Bartram, partners in bbg Marketing, have already transformed the space. They texturized the walls. They painted the ceilings and walls Tuscan-tinged shades of ruby-red, pumpkin-orange and gingerbread-yellow.

The two men, who have worked together for more than a decade building their successful marketing company, constructed tastefully decorated cubicles for employees along the perimeter of the office.

Then they wondered what to do with that remaining expanse of space. Baltus toyed with displaying an old Mercedes he owns, he joked. More serious ideas included a coffee shop, a venue for concerts or a spawning ground for spontaneous creativity.

One idea is creating what has become known as a “third place” or “third space.” The term comes from the concept that people have places where they are comfortable, where they feel at home. The first place is their physical homes. The second, their workplaces.

As for the third place, Baltus, 52, explains it as a public place that is a “gathering with like-minded people.” Specifically, they wanted to make their “third place” into a hub of some kind of cultural activity. Both men know many creative folks in town, from artists to musicians, who feel there are not enough places to ply their passions.

“Roseburg needs (this),” said Bartram, who has spent 40 of his 46 years living in Roseburg. “It needs a gathering place.”

Baltus even has a vision of what it will look like. “It could have a coffee shop or wine bar, a couple of guitars sitting on stands, a piano. Somebody could come in and have a cup of coffee and play the piano for others or themselves.”

Maybe it would display work of emerging artists. “There’d always be something going on,” he said.

The concept does not fit neatly into a business plan, Baltus admits. “It happens very organically.”

A piece of the evolving puzzle may come from a young man they know who roasts his own coffee and is interested in opening a shop in the open area of their business.

That connection led to another. The coffee connoisseur recently stumbled upon the music of a San Francisco-based folk duo — Mia and Jonah — on the Internet. They communicated, and ending up asking if the young man knew of a place, or even a house, in Roseburg where they could play.

He, of course, knew the perfect place: The showroom floor in bbg Marketing’s office. That concert takes place Friday.

Earlier this week, the latest step in the organic evolution took place. Baltus and Bartram invited friends to come to their office and talk about what to do with the empty space. Eleven people took them up on the offer. They ranged from employees of advertising and video production companies to owners of downtown businesses to a Chamber of Commerce representative.

They bantered about ideas of what to do with the open space. Suggestions included offering open-mike opportunities, having Music on the Half Shell performers play there after their more-public performances, hosting poetry readings or becoming a market for locally produced goods.

Bartram and Baltus are sharing their grander view of how they hope bbg’s space might help transform the downtown community, and beyond.

Bartram referred to an idea he’d stumbled upon on the Internet, the idea of forming what’s known as a “beta community.” In his mind, “it’s a gathering place of like-minded people who show an interest in developing the space they live in into a place they want to stay in.”

He said he and his friends have a “tremendous sense of pride in our community as we grew up here. I’ve seen what’s going on in other communities that intrigues and interests me and my friends. There’s no reason we can’t institute that here.”

He thinks the timing is right for changes downtown here, noting the blank slates of the vacant Safeway and Rite Aid stores and the possibility of development near the new Public Safety Building going up downtown.

“There’s an opportunity to truly effect (change),” Bartram said, “ if we can get enough people excited.”

Baltus, who was president of the Roseburg Area Chamber of Commerce not too long ago, sees an economic spinoff from the duo’s new digs.

He noted how much time the city spends trying to attract light manufacturing, call centers and “high-tech sorts of things. .... But nothing’s really being done to grow (our) own, to build some cultural infrastructure for (our) best and brightest to stay or to come back.”

Already, in a small way, they’ve seen their slice of downtown change.

Not long after bbg painted its office, they noticed a nearby business owner repainting the exterior of his building.

He’d told them, “I don’t want you to outdo me,” Baltus recalled, with a laugh.

“That’s a kind of simple example of what could happen,” he said.



• You can reach reporter Kathy Korengel at 957-4218 or by e-mail at kkorengel@newsreview.info.