Last week, the old Main Street Auto and Gas Station just down the hill from City Hall was demolished, with construction crews taking removing all signs of the building in one day.
In its place, the city of North Bend has big plans.
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Last week, the old Main Street Auto and Gas Station just down the hill from City Hall was demolished, with construction crews taking removing all signs of the building in one day.
In its place, the city of North Bend has big plans.
City Administrator David Milliron and Main Street Director Stephanie Wilson watched as the building was removed. The two, along with the city council, have been planning for the demolition and what comes next for months. The first step was removing the old gas station.
In its place will come a pocket part with permanent restrooms. And combined with the old DMV office next door, it will lead to a complete change for downtown North Bend.
“We’re still working on the concept plans,” Milliron said. “We’re also going to move the Mercy box car to the location. That’s one of the few box cars, one for each state, that were donated. North Bend is the home of the one in Oregon.”
Having a park in the downtown area ties in with the old DMV building, which will become home of North Bend’s Visitor Information Center this year.
The current visitor center, near the McCullough Bridge, is not ideal, Wilson said, because it does nothing to incentivize people to park and stay in the area. Instead, they stop, get information and drive off. That will all change in the coming months.
“The most wonderful thing I’m excited about is with the visitor center, they will have walkability to these venues we tell them about instead of having to get back in their car and drive,” Wilson said.
Milliron said one of the best things about both projects is it will cost North Bend taxpayers nothing out of the general fund. The city purchased the old gas station and paid for demolition with Urban Renewal Agency funds and purchased and will renovate the old DMV building using hotel and motel taxes.
Wilson said with the gas station now gone, the city would be searching for park grants to turn the now-vacant lot into a pocket park.
Milliron said one big change visitors will see is RVs will be able to stop at the new visitor’s center when it opens.
“They’ll be able to park, walk into the Visitor Information Center,” Milliron said. “They will have restrooms right there.”
The park and the new visitor’s center will also give North Bend a home to build events around. The roundabout in front of City Hall has long been used for events and community celebrations, and Wilson said more are to come.
“This will be the hub for our events,” she said.
Milliron said the next phase in the downtown change will be to renovate the DMV building. That work will start this summer, with the goal of opening the visitor’s center in the fall. Once open, it will be open year-round.
“It’s definitely a multi-phase project,” he said.
The quickest change was the one-day effort to tear down and remove the old gas station, but in the future that destruction will lead to many big changes for downtown North Bend.
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