Developer has new vision for Sherwood’s ‘Old Cannery’

By Kelly Moyer

The Sherwood Gazette, Nov 28, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (2 Reader comments)

Contributed Illustration

This drawing shows Capstone Partners' vision for the public plaza in downtown Sherwood, but developers caution that this sketch is very preliminary.

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The property city leaders call “the most important development in Sherwood,” has attracted the attention of a Pacific Northwest firm schooled in mixed-use development.

Capstone Partners, the real estate developers behind projects like North Portland’s new Vanport development and the $7 million Cornell Corners in Hillsboro, has answered Sherwood’s request for proposals on the Old Cannery site.

The developer proposes redeveloping the site, which sits in the heart of Sherwood’s historic Old Town, into a medley of retail shops, townhomes and offices -- something Sherwood’s leaders say is in line with what the citizens have envisioned for the Old Cannery.

“This (proposal) is really exciting because this is exactly what people told us they wanted to see on the Old Cannery site,” said Jim Patterson, Sherwood’s assistant city manager.

The city’s brokers received several offers on the property after the city’s RFP (request for proposals) went out this summer, but many of those offers called for a residential-only site. Simply building houses or town homes on the site is not something the city would have considered, Patterson said.

“People have said they do not want to see just residential there,” Patterson said. “Anything that was not mixed-use was not considered.”

But Patterson said the proposal from Capstone Partners is “totally in line with the city’s concept plan.”

The city-owned, six-acre parcel, which runs parallel to the railroad tracks in Old Town, was appraised at $3.7 million last January, and is considered to be one of the most crucial undeveloped parcels in Sherwood.

City officials have invested a lot of time and effort in this project, from going to the community to find out what Sherwood residents hoped to see on the site, to actually getting the site ready for development.

Capstone Partners, LLC was one of a handful of developers interested in the property, Patterson says, and seems to have come up with a redevelopment idea the city can accept.

“We want to come up with a plan that the city thinks is viable,” said Chris Nelson, of Capstone Partners. “It’s refreshing that the city is being very proactive with this site. We know they’re interested in having a legacy project done in downtown, that they don’t want an ordinary project or a one-dimensional project and our interst is in coming up with a solution.”

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