Danny Nelson, of B & R Continuous Guttering Co. Inc. in Bend, works on one of the Woodside Plaza buildings Wednesday.

A little more than a decade ago, John Dough’s Pizza was one of the hubs of Bend’s west side.

Pickup volleyball games sprouted in its yard on hot summer days, architect Roy Kroll remembers. Its outdoor patio was the place to go to grab a beer and say ”hi” to friends and familiar faces.

Today, John Dough’s has been flattened and hauled away.

In its place, the new commercial face of west Bend is beginning to take shape: new buildings with new shops, new restaurants, new apartments and new offices, all within walking or biking distance of the hundreds of pricey new homes in the subdivisions that have sprouted up to the west.

Before this year is out:

A new 4,800-square-foot retail building will go up on the old John Dough’s site at the northeast corner of Southwest Knoll Avenue and Century Drive.

Across Knoll Avenue, three new mixed-use retail, office and apartment buildings called Woodside Plaza are already rising, soon to be anchored by a new high-end seafood restaurant.

On the other end of west Bend’s midsection, a car lot at the corner of Newport Avenue and Southwest 10th Street is slated to be replaced by a two-story complex with retail on the ground floor and condominiums on the second.

Combined with the imminent closure of Bend’s 4.75-acre Century Drive Bright Wood plant, those developments may signal a commercial rebirth for an area that once was on the industrial fringe of an aging mill town.

”I think you will see more of these high-dollar buildings going in over there,” said Greg Jacobs, a COLM Commercial Real Estate broker who is in charge of leasing out the Woodside Plaza space. ”These were fairly expensive buildings to put in, but I think they are going to be more of a mirror of what will be going on in Bend.”

Woodside developer Bob Smith said he designed his complex with the new neighborhoods of west Bend in mind.

A 2,600-square-foot seafood restaurant with seating for 60 will occupy the front building along busy Century Drive, helping to feed the area’s appetite for expensive dining.

Small shops in the other two buildings’ 4,100 square feet of ground-floor retail space will include Classic Coverings and Design Inc., Jacobs said, along with Grasshopper, a children’s specialty toy and clothing boutique. A florist is expected to fill the remaining slot.

On the second floor of one building, six small offices ranging from 150 to 250 square feet apiece, along with a shared conference room and break room, are designed to attract professionals who want to work closer to their homes – or move their businesses out of their homes, Smith said.

The developers are hoping to market the one-bedroom apartments on the top floor of the complex’s back building to a corporate user, such as an airline or a corporation with local operations, to use instead of hotel space, Jacobs said.

They’re not inexpensive: monthly rents are expected to be $950 to $1,000.

Managing that type of multiple use in a small space has its challenges, said Mike Walker, who redeveloped an old office building on Newport Avenue and College Way a few years ago into a mix of restaurants, offices and retail shops.

Tenants have to be chosen carefully so their peak demands for parking don’t overlap too much, Walker said. Loud restaurants that generate strong odors don’t coexist well with apartments, either – at least not in the same building.

On the other hand, west Bend in particular is likely to see a good deal more mixed-use redevelopment for a couple of key reasons, Smith said. It intensifies the uses that can be packed onto increasingly expensive land and it satisfies a neighborhood demand for shops and workspaces within walking distance of homes.

On Newport Avenue and 10th Street, developers Peter Menefee and Brad Fraley are following that basic pattern with a new 9,070-square-foot building with retail on the ground floor and five condominiums on the second, according to the city’s planning application files.

That means the Combs Car Corral auto lot that sits on the site will have to find a new home to market its 40 to 50 used cars, said Combs administrative assistant Kelly Schaad.

The site has been a car lot for years, said Schaad, who has lived in Bend for more than 25 years. Its most recent owner, Dennis Combs, of Nampa, Idaho, is looking for another site in Bend but hasn’t had much luck yet.

”I’m just amazed at the growth,” she said.

Back at the old John Dough’s site, Cook said he plans to move the Fly and Field Outfitters Shop, in which he is a partial owner, from its current site just up Century Drive into his new building when it’s finished sometime around Christmas.

Possible tenants for the building’s other three spaces are still up in the air.

Just across the street, Bright Wood announced two months ago that it plans to close the sprawling plant on land it leases in west Bend, consolidating operations instead in other door and window-part plants in Madras and Redmond. The closure is slated to take effect Friday.

No redevelopment plans have been announced yet.

Woodside Plaza to join bend’s west side

New mixed-use developments like Woodside Plaza, seen here Wednesday on Southwest Knoll Avenue, are changing the commercial face of west Bend. Three buildings constitute Woodside Plaza, which will house retail, office and apartment space anchored by a high-end seafood restaurant.