Developer eyes Bend Walgreens

A Walgreens pharmacy could be coming to Bend.

San Francisco development company Seven Hills Properties wants to build a Walgreens on Northeast Franklin Avenue near Northeast Third Street, adjacent to Murray and Holt Motors.

Crews could start building some time in 2013 if the project gets approval from the city of Bend, said Tom Rocca, a partner with Seven Hills Properties. It would be Bend’s first Walgreens.

But there are plenty of unanswered questions about the proposal, and breaking ground next year is far from certain, Rocca said.

The agreement with Walgreens hasn’t been finalized, for one.

And while the large retail pharmacy chain would prefer the building be set back from the street, allowing a parking lot to be built in front, city code doesn’t allow a building to be more than 80 feet back from the street in that location, Rocca said.

“But this location is workable,” he said. “It’s not going to be a prototypical Walgreens, but I think it’s something that (Walgreens and the city) can agree with.”

Planning documents filed Oct. 9 with the Bend Community Development Department show plans for a 14,900-square-foot building on the property.

The plans label the building as a Walgreens.

An alley on the south end of the property would provide access to nearby parking lots.

In July, Seven Hills Properties reached an agreement with Jack Holt, principal dealer of Murray and Holt Motors, to build on the property adjacent to the dealership. Holt owns that parcel of land.

Seven Hills’ original plans called for a second, smaller building in addition to the pharmacy, likely for a bank or fast-food restaurant.

But city officials brought up concerns about access to the buildings if two were to be built on the property, said Amy Barry, associate planner with the city of Bend.

“The layout just didn’t work well,” Barry said.

Developers changed their plans after a pre-application meeting with city planning officials Aug. 2, scrapping the smaller building from the plan.

A second pre-application meeting is set for today. The pre-application process helps developers ensure that plans can meet city codes before they submit a formal application.

“They’ve got a totally different layout this time around,” Barry said, adding that the new proposal doesn’t appear to bring up any major issues.

Seven Hills has overseen residential and commercial building projects in Oregon, California, Nevada, Hawaii and Maryland, according to its website.

The development company has worked with Walgreens on a number of building projects, including in Portland, Rocca said. He said Walgreens has been looking to build a store in Bend for years.

Messages left this week with Walgreens corporate officials weren’t immediately returned. As of July 31, Walgreens had more than 7,900 stores in the U.S. and Puerto Rico, according to its website. It has 68 in Oregon, including one in Redmond.

A Walgreens had been identified as a possible occu-pant of a building site at Northeast 27th Street and Northeast Neff Road in 2006, according to The Bulletin’s archives. But that plan never moved forward.

Rocca was reluctant to give a firm timeline for construction of the pharmacy, if it gets city approval.

While a start date some time in 2013 seems reasonable, he said concrete plans wouldn’t be realistic without a full commitment from Walgreens, which may not come until some time in December.

And even with the pharmacy on board, “it’s not like we would be starting Jan. 1,” Rocca said.