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)

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Capstone Partners have met four times with city officials and Nelson said his firm is focused on creating a win-win situation for the developers, the city and the residents of Sherwood.

“The more we learn about this project the more we like,” Nelson said. “We really want to better understand the vision the city has for this project and come up with something that adds to (Sherwood’s) charming downtown.”

City managers will bring proposals to the city council in January for a series of public hearings.

Although Capstone hasn’t made a concrete offer yet, Patterson called the firm’s proposal “promising.”

“These people have done a really good job,” Patterson says of the development firm and of Ankrom Moisan Associated Architects, the architectural group working with Capstone on this project.

One of the architectural visionaries of Portland’s Pearl District, Ankrom Moisan also has experience in Sherwood -- they were the architects behind the city’s recent downtown street improvement project.

“One of the things they’ve proposed is building a public plaza where Railroad and Pine meet, where people could gather,” Patterson said. “That was one of the things that people have said they wanted at that site -- a place to gather, and maybe somewhere to place the annual (Christmas) tree.”

City officials have also expressed interest in having a developer consider incorporating a cultural arts center at the Old Cannery site, but Patterson said the need for that will depend on the results of the city’s cultural arts needs assessment, which recently polled residents on their cultural arts needs.

At this stage, all of the discussions are very preliminary. Several things have to happen before the site actually gets developed. The city needs to come to a financial agreement with a developer, the city council needs to hold public hearings on the matter and the developer needs to come up with a concrete redevelopment plan.

“It’s still very preliminary at this point,” Patterson said. “The city has expressed interest in the developer buying the entire (10-block) site at once, but would be open to a phased development approach.”

Patterson said he’s “extremely excited” about some of the concepts that have come in so far, and that Capstone in particular has “captured the vision for the site” that is “consistent with where the city would like to go in the redevelopment of the site.”

For more information about this project, visit the Old Cannery informational Web site at www.sherwoodcannery.com.

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