Andy Tullis / The Bulletin

Neff Place

1500 N.E. Cushing Drive

Owner: KNSTP TIC

Architect: BLRB Architects

General Contractor: SunWest Builders

Contact: 541-548-7341

The frame is up for Neff Place, a new retail and restaurant development between St. Charles Bend and Bend Memorial Clinic.

Construction on the building began in March and is expected to be completed by September, Tessa Cox of SunWest Builders wrote in an email.

Steve Toomey of Compass Commercial Real Estate, who is a developer as well as a co-owner of Neff Place, said he hopes to deliver spaces to the tenants in August. About 75 percent of the building has been leased out, with another 2,000 square feet remaining for one or two tenants, he said.

Neff Place will house two confirmed tenants: Jackson’s Corner, as well as another restaurant, whose name Toomey could not release. Jackson’s Corner will be the anchor tenant, filling about half the 8,000-square-foot building.

“It really has the best one-mile demographic radius that I’ve ever seen in Bend,” he said. “The combination of employees and rooftops is unmatched.”

The vision for Neff Place is to create an intimate, local setting instead of a commercial environment, Toomey said.

“We’re building it out of brick, rather than concrete block … we’ve over-landscaped it. We have a private patio setting with a fire pit,” he said. “You know the feel when you go to 10 Barrel (Brewing Co.)? It’s more than just going out, grabbing something to eat and leaving. It’s a place where people want to hang out … It’s part of the neighborhood.” Toomey estimates the first phase of the project will cost about $2.5 million. The second phase will be the development of a 10,000- to 12,000-square-foot building on the east side of the building now being constructed.

“We have been having conversations with a couple potential tenants about that phase, but we will not start construction on that building until we have a tenant,” he said, adding there’s no timeline set. “We don’t even have a building design … It’s about finding the right tenant.”

— Rachael Rees,The Bulletin