Andy Tullis / The Bulletin file photoThe Old Mill Marketplace in Bend, shown here in 2013, was previously the home of the Brooks-Scanlon box factory.

A century after construction began on the Brooks-Scanlon box factory in Bend, the 32 local businesses that occupy the building today will host a block party this weekend to celebrate the building’s history.

The factory, the second of its kind in town, utilized the wood scraps from the lumber mill to create crates that hauled everything from Sunkist oranges to ammunition during World War II, according to Jeremy McPherson, development manager for Killian Pacific, the Vancouver, Washington-based firm that purchased the building.

“Here it was, a small mill town out in the middle of Oregon that was supplying thousands of boxes to the whole country,” McPherson said. “I think that’s kind of cool.”

The 100,000-square-foot commercial center sits on 3.4 acres between Industrial Way and NW Arizona Avenue. It features the 90,000-square-foot factory, which includes an additional wing that McPherson said was added in the 1930s, as well as two newer standalone buildings to the west. In March, it was announced that the complex, which had previously been known as the Old Mill Marketplace, would be known as The Box Factory as an homage to its history.

Vanessa Ivey, museum manager for the Des Chutes Historical Museum, added that the Brooks-Scanlon mill processed its last log in 1993. The box factory was reconfigured for commercial use afterward, but McPherson said the owners at the time didn’t spend the time or effort to convert the building for modern use.

According to The Bulletin’s archives, Killian Pacific bought the facility for around $6.4 million in 2013 as Bend was still emerging from the recession. It sold for $18 million in 2007. Killian Pacific inherited a building that was just over half full by square footage and was dilapidated in some areas.

“The building itself, it needed TLC more than it needed a big change to its facade,” McPherson said, “because its facade is what we really wanted to celebrate.”

Today, McPherson said the space is more than 90 percent occupied, following the additions of Immersion Brewing and The Brown Owl, a food truck that opened a brick-and-mortar location earlier this spring.

Given the challenges, many of the companies that gravitated to the building have historically been small businesses, which were willing to retrofit individual spaces in exchange for lower rents and a location near downtown, McPherson said. One such business was The Bend Tour Co., which moved into the complex in 2011. Founder Bret Graham said the building was 19 percent occupied when he moved in, but he liked it for its proximity to the Old Mill District and downtown, making it easy to launch tours to either location.

“And since we were doing historical tours, it made sense to incorporate the history of the building,” Graham added.

Dan McCoy, co-owner of Atlas Cider Co., which opened a taproom at The Box Factory last year, added that the building’s location, near Deschutes Brewery and Crux Fermentation Project, proved very helpful when the business was getting off the ground. The cidery will be co-hosting the block party, in celebration of the company’s three-year anniversary this summer.

“We really wanted to have a place that was right in the center of Bend’s beer culture,” McCoy said.

— Reporter: 541-617-7818, shamway@bendbulletin.com