REGION
Thursday, May 23, 2019
East Oregonian
A3
Developer takes aim at Pendleton’s housing incentives
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
The city of Pendleton
hasn’t been hesitant to use
financial incentives to try to
reinvigorate the city’s hous-
ing industry, but one devel-
oper is crying foul over
how the city chooses to dole
them out.
Pendleton
Triangle
Apartments developer Nate
Brusselback used the pub-
lic comment section of the
Pendleton City Council
meeting Tuesday to lam-
baste the council for giving
incentives to other housing
development while skip-
ping his own and calling on
the city to create a uniform
incentive system it could
apply to all future housing
developments.
“From my point of view,
your system is broken, it’s
unfair, it’s anti-competitive
and I’m asking city council
to fix it,” he told the coun-
cil as he read from prepared
remarks.
“Consider some sort of
incentive package for my
project,” he said. “Some way
to show that the city of Pend-
leton welcomes all investors
and entrepreneurs and can
work with them rather than
drive them away.”
According to Brussel-
EO file photo
Nate Brusselback, owner of Pendleton Triangle Apartments, criticized the city’s approach to
incentives at a Pendleton City Council meeting on Tuesday.
back, the $4 million, 25-unit
apartment complex he’s fin-
ishing near Southwest Hai-
ley Avenue offers more to
the community than some
of the developments the city
has backed.
Brusselback mentioned
the Westgate Apartments
project, a planned 200-unit
complex that could have
some of its property taxes
reimbursed by the city
based on its vacancy rate,
and Pendleton Heights, a
mixed-use development that
has had some of its infra-
structure costs fronted by
the city.
But he trained much of
his critique on the Bow-
man Building, the down-
town building that’s under-
going renovations to convert
office space into 18 apart-
ment units.
Acting as the Pendleton
Development Commission,
the council granted the proj-
ect $340,928 to cover some
of the costs of construction.
Brusselback
said
the series of studio and
one-bedroom apartments at
Bowman would not have the
same economic impact as
the two and three-bedroom
units, which could attract
higher earners with more
disposable income.
“We the taxpayer are
paying the very most for
the thing that gives the
community the very least,”
he said.
Brusselback argued that
the city should bestow incen-
tives on his project, suggest-
ing that the city could con-
vert part of the property
tax payments he will make
in the next 10 years into a
water and sewer bill credit.
And unlike some of the
other projects the city has
funded, Brusselback said
Pendleton Triangle isn’t
merely a proposal.
“This is not some hypo-
thetical project that might
never get built where the
taxpayer takes on the risk
upfront,” he said. “It isn’t a
‘road to nowhere,’ or a tax-
payer-funded sewer line
or street that may or may
not get apartments some-
day. I have taken all the risk
upfront. The complex is real,
it’s here and it’s expanded
tax base can be measured
and its economic benefit can
be felt.”
He also suggested the city
adopt a standardized incen-
tive program that any devel-
oper can meet, which would
prevent the city from pick-
ing “winners and losers.”
After
finishing
his
speech, Brusselback added
that he has struggled to fill
all of his units, and although
the complex isn’t complete,
some units are “collecting
dust.”
Pendleton Triangle held
its grand opening in Novem-
ber, and at the time, units
were being advertised for
$1,495 per month.
The council’s response
to Brusselback’s arguments
was muted.
Councilor Paul Chalmers
clarified that the grant given
to the Bowman Building
was from the urban renewal
district and would not have
been applicable to Pendleton
Triangle.
Councilor Scott Fairley
was the only member who
seemed receptive to one of
Brusselback’s ideas.
“I think it would be a
good conversation to have
either with the housing
committee or a workshop
with the council to talk
about the benefits of a uni-
form incentive program for
housing,” he said. “So that
when developers come, they
know ahead of time, ‘When
I deliver on x, I’m gonna
get y.’ And it’s the same for
everybody and it’s equal and
all developers are treated the
same.”
But Mayor John Turner
pushed back against a stan-
dardized incentive program,
saying that each develop-
ment was different and the
city didn’t want to adopt a
“cookie cutter approach.”
Pendleton City Council increases code
enforcement for abandoned homes
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
Staff photo by Jade McDowell
Owners Tricia and Terry Journot are pictured at the new
downtown location for Yo Country Frozen Yogurt.
Yo Country moves
frozen yogurt shop to
downtown storefront
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
If the secret to real
estate is “location, loca-
tion, location” then Yo
Country Frozen Yogurt is
sitting pretty.
The Hermiston business
recently moved downtown
after years behind Cottage
Flowers, hidden from view
of the surrounding roads.
“We didn’t get the expo-
sure like we will here,”
owner Terry Journot said.
The new location,
which opened this week, is
at 130 S.E. Third St. in a
former law office.
The storefront offers
frozen yogurt and top-
pings by the ounce, as
well as kombucha. Journot
said they will be adding
some more products in the
upcoming months after
getting settled.
Terry and his wife Tri-
cia Journot bought the
business in 2017 from its
previous owners.
“I had been working at
a power plant for 17 years
and just needed something
different,” Terry said.
The location at the
back of another business
was “really bad,” Tricia
said, but they used social
media to try and spread
the word. They also used
the old ambulance they
had inherited from the pre-
vious owners to go mobile
and bring their product to
community events.
Now they are open on
the corner of Third Street
and Hurlburt Avenue, with
their own ADA-accessible
restroom and outdoor seat-
ing. They are still work-
ing to add more permanent
concrete seating, an LED
sign, landscaping and new
paint with the help of a
facade grant from the city.
“We’re not done, we
just wanted to make sure
we had the product avail-
able for customers now,”
Tricia said.
Until school gets out,
Yo Country’s hours will
be noon to 8 p.m. Monday
through Thursday, 11 a.m.
to 9 p.m. Friday and Sat-
urday and 11 a.m. to
8 p.m. on Sundays. Sum-
mer hours will be 11 a.m.
to 9 p.m. Monday through
Saturday and 11 a.m. to
8 p.m. on Sundays.
At a meeting Tuesday, the
Pendleton City Council sig-
nificantly changed the city’s
code enforcement author-
ities to include abandoned
homes and above-ground
swimming pools.
The council approved a
series of ordinances that are
a part of the city’s ongoing
efforts to reduce blight.
According to a staff
report from City Attorney
Nancy Kerns, the update to
the abandoned homes ordi-
nance isn’t meant to mediate
conflicts between landlords
and tenants over minor code
violations or permit entry
into occupied homes that
aren’t a fire hazard.
The ordinance is target-
ing “derelict” and “danger-
ous” residences and allows
the city to address trespass-
ing in vacant structures and
homes with permanently
boarded windows and doors.
Other changes to code
enforcement include requir-
ing a barrier around out-
door pools, prohibiting free
roaming dogs from enter-
ing private property without
permission, and easing the
timeline for required repairs
to a fire-damaged building.
The
council
also
approved two items that
could boost the Eastern Ore-
gon Regional Airport.
• As a part of a multi-
million-dollar unmanned
aerial systems industrial
park project at the airport,
the council approved a $2.8
million bid from Pioneer
Construction to make util-
ity improvements to the
south side of the industrial
park property.
The bid is significantly
less than the city’s $4.2
million estimate and the
$4.6 million bid produced
by Mike Becker General
Contractor of La Grande,
the only other bidder.
Overall, the city plans to
pay for the project through
state loans obtained by
leveraging utility rate hikes
and a $3 million grant from
the U.S. Economic Develop-
ment Administration.
• The council also unan-
imously approved leasing
26,406 square feet of land to
PDT Hangar Inc. to build a
row of t-hangars.
As a part of an incen-
tive deal, PDT Hangar will
defer rental payments over
the first 20 years of the
30-year lease. The com-
pany will then pay the reg-
ular rent plus the deferred
rent over the last 10 years
of the lease.
PDT Hangar can extend
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the lease up to a total of 50
years if it builds a second
hangar, and the city will be
responsible for building and
maintaining a public bath-
room at the site.
The company’s rent is
$5,466 per year with annual
consumer
price
index
adjustments.
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