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An animal jaw bone and teeth decorate the empty parking lot outside the former Safeway building in Roseburg in this past photo. Once the store closed, downtown Roseburg residents were left without a nearby grocery store.
City officials have determined that downtown Roseburg won't easily support a supermarket, but they hope to bring a smaller grocery store to the area. They also envision a new public park in the city's core and a livelier waterfront.
City staff members met with downtown business owners Wednesday morning at the Roseburg Public Safety Center to discuss these and other urban renewal projects. The idea is to bring more people downtown and therefore generate more business for downtown merchants.
Community Development Director Brian Davis spoke of the city's continued efforts to get a downtown grocery store to replace the Safeway store that closed three years ago. He also shared city visions for an improved waterfront and plans to build a park and building for retail and office space. The latter could be built in the lot where the former Safeway building now sits vacant.
Davis said city staff members researched what it would take to sustain a grocery store in the downtown market. They reported that a major grocery chain such as Safeway would like to bring in about $400,000 a week, which would mean that each member of the downtown population would have to spend about $80 a week at the store. Davis said that would be too much of a burden, given that city officials believe it's more realistic to expect a weekly expenditure of $30 per downtown resident.
As a result, the city has contacted representatives of smaller grocery stores to see if they'd be interested in opening a store in downtown Roseburg, Davis said. The stores include Ray's Food Place, McKay's Food and Drug, Bishop's Grocery and Deli, Roth's Fresh Market, and Trader Joe's. Some, like Trader Joe's, have already declined the offer, he said. Davis said staff members have also asked the owners of the Grocery Outlet on Harvard Avenue if it would be possible for the store to relocate downtown.
The city also determined that the location of the old grocery store downtown was not ideal because it was hard to access, Davis said. Staff found another area downtown, near the intersection of Southeast Stephens Street and Oak Avenue, where they hope to have the new grocery store located.
As for the abandoned Safeway lot, the city proposes to work with the lot owners to redevelop it into a park and multi-story building, Davis said. The city will pay for the $100,000 needed to demolish the old building, on the condition that the owners set aside at least a quarter of the property for a public park, he said. The city would like to have this demolition done in the next three years, Swanson said.
Virginia Elandt, a planning intern with the city, responded to inquires from business owners about the city's progress in encouraging more residential use in the upper stories of downtown buildings. She said a feasibility study is under way that is looking into the cost of rehabilitating older buildings for residential use. Fortunately, there are federal and state tax credits available for building rehabilitation.
The downtown waterfront is also going to get some attention, said Davis. The city plans to make various improvements to the waterfront that will make it more inviting and a place where people will want to spend time, he said.
“One of the things that's often overlooked is we do have a river running through downtown,” he said.
• You can reach reporter Inka Bajandas at 957-4202 or by e-mail at ibajandas@nrtoday.com.
City staff members met with downtown business owners Wednesday morning at the Roseburg Public Safety Center to discuss these and other urban renewal projects. The idea is to bring more people downtown and therefore generate more business for downtown merchants.
Community Development Director Brian Davis spoke of the city's continued efforts to get a downtown grocery store to replace the Safeway store that closed three years ago. He also shared city visions for an improved waterfront and plans to build a park and building for retail and office space. The latter could be built in the lot where the former Safeway building now sits vacant.
Davis said city staff members researched what it would take to sustain a grocery store in the downtown market. They reported that a major grocery chain such as Safeway would like to bring in about $400,000 a week, which would mean that each member of the downtown population would have to spend about $80 a week at the store. Davis said that would be too much of a burden, given that city officials believe it's more realistic to expect a weekly expenditure of $30 per downtown resident.
As a result, the city has contacted representatives of smaller grocery stores to see if they'd be interested in opening a store in downtown Roseburg, Davis said. The stores include Ray's Food Place, McKay's Food and Drug, Bishop's Grocery and Deli, Roth's Fresh Market, and Trader Joe's. Some, like Trader Joe's, have already declined the offer, he said. Davis said staff members have also asked the owners of the Grocery Outlet on Harvard Avenue if it would be possible for the store to relocate downtown.
The city also determined that the location of the old grocery store downtown was not ideal because it was hard to access, Davis said. Staff found another area downtown, near the intersection of Southeast Stephens Street and Oak Avenue, where they hope to have the new grocery store located.
As for the abandoned Safeway lot, the city proposes to work with the lot owners to redevelop it into a park and multi-story building, Davis said. The city will pay for the $100,000 needed to demolish the old building, on the condition that the owners set aside at least a quarter of the property for a public park, he said. The city would like to have this demolition done in the next three years, Swanson said.
Virginia Elandt, a planning intern with the city, responded to inquires from business owners about the city's progress in encouraging more residential use in the upper stories of downtown buildings. She said a feasibility study is under way that is looking into the cost of rehabilitating older buildings for residential use. Fortunately, there are federal and state tax credits available for building rehabilitation.
The downtown waterfront is also going to get some attention, said Davis. The city plans to make various improvements to the waterfront that will make it more inviting and a place where people will want to spend time, he said.
“One of the things that's often overlooked is we do have a river running through downtown,” he said.
• You can reach reporter Inka Bajandas at 957-4202 or by e-mail at ibajandas@nrtoday.com.
