COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL | WEDNESDAY, APRIL 17, 2019 | 7A
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the biggest, ugliest building and
you renovate it.”
The Bank Building seemed to
fit the bill.
Blackstone’s project concep-
tually began when he realized
there was economic energy
in Cottage Grove’s downtown
and began thinking of ways he
could tap into its potential. He
had made his career as a con-
sultant identifying marketing
opportunities for large compa-
nies, validating new concepts
for products and determining
strategies for entering markets.
It dawned on him that such
skills could be applied toward
revitalizing a city.
“So I hired myself to do
a consulting gig for Cottage
Grove but didn’t tell anybody,”
said Blackstone. “I did a deep
dive,” he said, going as far as
hiring a research firm to con-
duct surveys.
As his vision developed,
Blackstone came to a simple
realization that “jobs are related
to business, business is related
to building and building is re-
lated to land,” he said.
Real estate seemed to be the
key, prompting him to acquire
both real estate and a general
contractor’s licenses along his
journey to materialize his vi-
sion of an economically vibrant
town.
Blackstone moved to Cot-
tage Grove in 1985 and has wit-
nessed the rise and fall of sev-
eral businesses over the years,
describing how he could just
“feel” that some would make it
and other would not.
Only a year was left on his
mortgage when he floated the
idea of investing in the rough-
ly $1.5 million Bank Building
project to his wife. To his sur-
prise, she agreed.
“What type of woman in the
world would say that?” Black-
Vets
from A1
deaths among soldiers was a
topic of conversation last week
among Florence-area veterans,
spurred primarily by the visit of
the traveling replica of the Viet-
nam Veterans Memorial Wall,
“The Wall That Heals.”
Sadly, underscoring the
memorial’s visit was the unex-
pected death of local veteran
Pete Maury, who took his life
just days before the wall’s ar-
rival. The night before, Maury
and his wife, Bev, had spent the
evening with a group of friends
enjoying dinner at Elks Lodge
#1858. Later that evening after
returning home, Maury ended
his life with a single gunshot.
When “The Wall That Heals”
arrived a few days later, fellow
veterans of Maury’s were still
mourning his loss and agreed
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C ottage G rove
Blackstone sees the work-
space as a financially sustain-
able “incubator” for economic
stimulus in the city. Given an
affordable opportunity, he be-
lieves ambitious small busi-
nesses can find a lasting role in
developing the town’s heart and
soul.
Creating business space is
only part of the plan, though.
“The key is getting tenants
downtown,” Blackstone said on
making his revitalization efforts
successful.
Until construction began,
the second floor had served
as low-income housing and
many of the units’ facilities
had not been updated in so
long they appeared as relics of
a bygone era. Final floor plans
for upstairs will see six units
refurbished for middle-income
tenants, three of which will fea-
ture an original ballroom-style
ceiling which was uncovered
during the inspection process
and is slated to be restored.
“I like to think of living up-
stairs here as small-town living
in an urban environment,” said
Blackstone. “You see all the ac-
tivity, the energy and the flow
and you’re able to live in this
mini-urban environment but in
a small town. I think that’s kind
of cool.”
Blackstone theorizes that
people with disposable income
within walking distance of
downtown shops are likely to
become downtown consumers,
stirring the pot for an energetic
economy.
As ambitious as the project
is, it cannot claim pioneer status
on the frontier of downtown re-
vitalization. The Bank Building
joins a cast of Main Street play-
ers which have contributed to
a process of breathing new life
into the area.
“My fantasy is that this can be
a stimulation and further what
efforts have already been done,”
Blackstone said. “There are al-
ready some real heroes down
here.”
Structures and businesses
such as Homestead Furniture,
Axe and Fiddle, Jack Sprats
and the Club Building are
among often-cited examples of
downtown moving in the right
direction, though not every
project has been executed with-
out criticism. Blackstone’s own
building has received its share
of skepticism on social media.
Regardless, the building owner
believes the need for progress is
evident.
“Main Street will never be
what it was 50 years ago or 25
years ago,” said Blackstone. “So
I think we as a community in a
sense need to re-envision what
our Main Street is.”
Part of that process involves
accepting the inevitability of
change.
“I think the message I want to
send is that our town needs to
grow,” Blackstone said. “Growth
is not bad. We’re always in a
state of dying, so if we don’t
grow, we will die.”
For a city facing disturbingly
low rates of housing vacancy
and a cost-burdened house-
hold rate at nearly 50 percent,
downtown economic stimulus
has potential to weave into the
social fabric a thread of vitality.
“Buildings downtown can
have a profound effect down-
town and on the community,”
said City Manager Richard
Meyers. “So it’s exciting to see
that classic old building get re-
stored and put back to the con-
dition it was in before.”
For his part, Blackstone em-
phasized he accepts his role in
the process with humility and
an understanding there are wid-
er implications for his actions.
“At the end of the day, it’s not
about me,” he said. “It’s about
the community and how it can
help. It doesn’t mean you’re go-
ing to make everybody happy,
but you do your darndest.”
to speak with The Siuslaw News
in an honest discussion about
the possible reasons for their
friend’s suicide. Most were in
agreement that the physical
pain he was enduring, coupled
with the inevitable decline in
his quality of life, led him to
suicide.
Jerry Hernandez is the Com-
mander of Disabled American
Veterans Chapter 23, Florence,
Oregon, and a strong advocate
for the needs of the local veter-
an’s community.
“With Pete Maury for exam-
ple, you get to a certain age and
all those injuries you got during
the war or during your service
time — they start to get more
intense,” said Hernandez. “The
pain gets more intense and Pete
was tired of the pain. It had
been going on for so long, he
was just tired of the pain.”
Hernandez explained that
Maury had operations on his
knees and his legs, and it was
just going on for too long.
“About five years ago, a friend of
his passed away, the same way,
committing suicide. So, this was
on Pete’s mind, too. If you were
in the military and you had
friends that committed suicide,
sometimes it’s contagious.”
Maury was a longtime mem-
ber of the Elks and his work
with the Florence Municipal
Airport Volunteers was well
known and appreciated, greet-
ing visiting pilots and travelers
as recently as three weeks ago.
Maury seemingly enjoyed
his last night on earth, chat-
ting with friends during his
meal and even making an at-
tempt at dancing which, with
his limited mobility, was not an
easy task. According to his wife
and friends, there was no indi-
cation from Maury’s behavior
or words that would have in-
dicated he had plans of suicide
later that evening. After Maury
and his wife returned home, he
simply went to the garage and
killed himself.
“I think Pete just wanted it
that way. He didn’t want any-
body to know what he was
planning. He had been thinking
about it for some time. He had
mentioned it one time and we
all said, ‘He’s not going to do
that,’” Hernandez said.
The number of individuals
that have served in the military
and take their own lives averag-
es more than 6,500 a year.
This means that, each day,
approximately 20 veterans
kill themselves. Most of these
deaths are by gunshot. Rick
Shore is the Treasurer for DAV
and he feels the reason that guns
are used in the vast majority of
veteran suicides is a simple one.
“They are a tool we were
trained to utilize, and we have
them because of that,” he said.
“That makes them easily acces-
sible and we are not afraid to
use them. Unfortunately, we are
using them on ourselves,” Shore
added with a noticeable tremor
in his voice.
The fact is, there has always
been concern that those who
serve in combat are at greater
risk of depression and alien-
ation when returning to civilian
life. Those concerns have been
voiced by family members and
the loved ones of veterans, go-
ing back to the Revolutionary
War. There is also anecdotal
evidence dating back to WWI
that indicates suicide among
veterans was an issue of public
concern for a number of years
after that war.
Reports of WWII and Korean
War veterans killing themselves
were often either not publicized
or were misidentified as “ac-
cidental.” As a result, accurate
statistical information on sui-
cide rates among this group of
veterans has been limited.
W
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541.942.3325
stone queried gratefully. “But
she did.”
Since work began, Black-
stone has received the $20,000
Diamonds in the Rough state
grant to reconstruct the build-
ing’s façade and is currently
waiting to hear back on a po-
tential $200,000 grant as part of
the Oregon Main Street Revital-
ization Grant Program.
Work on the building is to
be extensive and estimated to
last until next May. Restorative
efforts will include returning
the building’s original rooftop
awnings, reconstructing its
western bay window, putting in
large first-floor windows and
installing a decorative balcony
on the building’s façade.
hen construction is
completed, it’s hoped
a symmetry and balance will
be returned to the building’s
streetside appearance.
The ground floor will also be
constructed to meet Americans
with Disabilities Act require-
ments.
“So it’s coupling the historic
aspects with current code,” said
Blackstone.
The ground floor, though in
the process of being completely
gutted, will continue to house
businesses in its reimagined
state. Extending 60 feet down
Sixth Street, the building will
divide units into thirds, giving
20 feet each for the two exist-
ing businesses and potentially
Blackstone’s own coffee shop on
the corner.
The remainder of the first
floor is planned to serve as af-
fordable, rentable office space
that will feature individual of-
fices, private desks and shared
workspaces. This particular
business model is meant to pro-
vide a stepping stone for small
businesses, startups or even
larger out-of-town companies
which want to maintain a pres-
ence in Cottage Grove at a low
cost.
Contact: Meg Fringer
541-942-3325 x1200
mfringer@cgsentinel.com
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