Ray's in Sisters to build anew at expense of popular RV park

SISTERS — Rumors have floated around this tight-knit community for more than two years about when and where its largest grocer would rebuild its timeworn store, located at the west end of town.

Ray’s Food Place will move a short walk away from its current location near the interchange of U.S. Highway 20 and McKenzie Highway, where it has resided since 1995. Its new home is just northwest of its current location, the retail chain’s parent company announced Friday.

Sisters will have a new, approximately 42,000-square-foot Ray’s by October 2008, said Alan Nidiffer, the company’s spokesman. It will replace the existing 28,500-square-foot store, built in 1978 as Pioneer Sentry. But it will come at the expense of the Sisters RV Park, the park’s owners said.

Plans in the works for about two years had called for the new store to be built south of the current store, but a final deal could not be reached with the property and building’s current owner, Nidiffer said. There is no word on what will take currentRay’s place. The owner of the building and property, Helmut Junge of Eugene, could not be reached for comment.

Built in the 1980s, the 83-spot RV park has been a favorite among traveling RVers, who can easily access Sisters and Bend and affordably park their rides for a weekend or longer.

The park would close as soon as construction begins on the new Ray’s, which could occur as early as this fall, the park’s owners said.

The new store will be similar in size to the Ray’s in Redmond’s Nolan Town Center, which measures 42,190 square feet and was built in 2005. It will have all the same fixings, including large natural and organic selections throughout the store, full-service meat and bakery/deli departments and a wine cellar with more than 2,000 selections, Nidiffer said.

“Sisters is a vocal community that wants nicer selections and a nicer grocery store,” Nidiffer said. “They’ve asked us, how come we can’t build a Redmond-like store here? They’ve said, ‘We want a store like that in our community.’”

Shoppers in front of the Ray’s store in Sisters on Friday, angling to get their carts through the doors and maneuvering to park their cars in its tightly packed lot, were mostly in support of the new store.

“I think it’s about time,” said Carolyn Weir, a Sisters resident who has shopped at Ray’s for about 10 years. “This store isn’t up to par with the Redmond and Bend stores, and I’m sure they lose a lot of customers because it isn’t.”

Another shopper, John Hornbeck, has lived in Sisters for 19 years and thought the loss of the RV park would hurt the city’s tourism trade.

“I think this store is perfectly adequate,” he said. “I always find the wine that I’m looking for and I never see the parking lot full. I understand from a business perspective why they would do it, but the RV park fills a need for Sisters. A lot of people visit Sisters in the summer that want to utilize the RV park.”

The park’s owners, Todd Taylor and Jeff Pickhardt of Bend-based Taylor Pickhardt Development LLC, bought the property and the RV park business in 2005. Its location on high-value, high visibility property off Highway 20 at the west end of Sisters made it more useful for commercial development, its owners said.

“We felt there was a higher and better use for the location than an RV park, which was occupied for three to four months per year,” Pickhardt said. “What we heard from the community loud and clear, is that the community needed a new grocery store.”

Taylor Pickhardt Development will build the new Ray’s on a 5-acre parcel at the current site of the RV park. They will lease out the new building to Ray’s, Pickhardt said.

The Ray’s store will be part of an 11-acre development called the Sisters Center that will include other retail, restaurant and and office users, Pickhardt said. South Valley Bank has already purchased a lot on the northeast corner of the property and will have a bank there, he said.

The Sisters Inn, also owned by Taylor and Pickhardt, will remain at its existing location, Pickhardt said.

The RV park stopped taking reservations for 2008 when Taylor and Pickhardt began negotiations with Ray’s parent company earlier this year, he said.

Most of the RVers at the park visit Sisters on vacation, said Dave Elliott, the former mayor of Sisters who manages the property. A few have stayed longer, he said.

“The RVers were told when they arrived here that the park would be closing Oct. 1,” Elliot said.

RVers were saddened to hear that one of the few remaining RV spots for parking their rigs would be gone as early as this fall.

“I’m very sad about it,” said Carol Doerschlag, visiting from Scappoose. “We’re going to miss this place a lot. It’s a nice place to stay. We’ve been coming here for so many years.”

Her husband, Richard Doerschlag, echoed her sentiment.

“She’s go shopping and I’d play poker at Bronco Billy’s (Ranch Grill in Sisters),” he said. “We travel here every summer in our 32-foot fifth wheel. It’s not that same little Sisters town it used to be.”

Another RVer, Patty Avallone of San Diego, said she had been coming to the Sisters RV Park for several years and would miss its central location and clean feel.

“We might have to stay at Black Butte Ranch or KOA,” she said. “I’m sorry that it’s happening, but I understand the commercial side of things too.”