The CRBJ readership area has recently seen big leaps in real estate development. Here’s a recap of projects around the region and where they’re headed.

Warrenton Home Depot/ Costco shopping hub will also include Staples office supply

In 2007, CRBJ reported on the emergence of Warrenton as a retail hub for the North Coast. Among the reasons for this business shift was the announcement that Home Depot was going to build a store in Warrenton, south of Fred Meyer at Dolphin Rd and U.S. Hwy 101.

Then Costco announced that the company would move from their current location next to Fred Meyer and build a new store in the same vicinity as Home Depot.

Since then, Lum’s Auto has broken ground in a new facility in the same locale.

Now, the latest big retailer to stake a claim at the Warrenton site is Staples office supply, Warrenton Planner Carol Parker said.

Parker said in other news, the Costco site rezoning issue will be heard before the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals (LUBA) this month.

Myriad Properties Broker Peter Tadei told CRBJ that negotiations and site plans for the shopping hub are still in the early stages, and the public can expect to see numerous other businesses in the complex.

“There’s been lots of activity and interest,” Tadei said.

Taggart’s Pier 1 Marina Building still on the block

In 2006, Astoria contractor and then Port of Astoria commissioner Glenn Taggart completed construction of the three-story, 20,000-square-foot waterfront Pier 1 Marina Building at the Port of Astoria.

The structure included roughly 25 units of office space along with accommodations for a proposed restaurant among other businesses planned for the ground floor.

Taggart had some tenants lined up to occupy the building, including at least one retail store, an attorney’s office and several other professionals. The Port of Astoria’s marina office, restrooms, showers and laundry facilities were also slated to relocate there.

According to April reports in the Daily Astorian newspaper, Taggart also had two prospective buyers, developers Paul Caruana and Brian Faherty, who were interested in purchasing the building.

Caruana and Faherty are among the co-owners of the historic Commodore Hotel in Astoria, at the corner of 14th and Commercial streets, the current focus of a historic preservation project.

The two developers decided not to pursue the deal after Astoria Port Commissioner Larry Pfund claimed to have seen “black mold” on the building’s interior walls. During a subsequent building tour, no mold was found, according to Daily Astorian reports.

Myriad Properties Broker Peter Tadei said that as of mid-December the building is currently available for sale, and a couple of potential buyers had expressed interest in the property.

Tadei said Taggart, who still owns the building, had two subsequent independent inspections done of the building after comments made by Port Commissioner Larry Pfund. Neither inspection revealed any mold in the building, Tadei said.

CMH Health and Wellness Pavilion comes to fruition

Residents and visitors traveling through the east end of Astoria can’t help but notice a new building taking shape next to Columbia Memorial Hospital at the corner of Leif Erickson Drive and Exchange St.

It’s CMH’s new Health and Wellness Pavilion, slated to open later this year. The center will house many hospital services such as digital mammography, bone density scanning, and ultrasound equipment, along with physician office space, a coffee shop and other services. The new space will free up the existing hospital building to also expand services.

CMH Marketing Director Steve Buckelew said the project was moving forward, albeit a little behind schedule.

“We’re about two weeks behind,” he said. “We’re still talking about taking possession of the building in mid-February. Then we can start moving in.”

He estimated the hospital would hold a grand opening in April.

“We’re excited about it,” he said. “It’s going to be a great new building for the community.”

Commodore Hotel repairs storm damage, awaits permits

The old Commodore Hotel stood empty for many years at the corner of 14th and Commercial streets in downtown Astoria, pretty much untouched since the 1960s when the hotel closed its doors.

When developers Paul Caruana, Brian Faherty, and Lance Marrs toured the building last year, they found an eerily preserved time capsule original furniture, old bedspreads embroidered with the hotel’s name, dusty skeleton keys, and an old ferry schedule from before the Astoria Megler Bridge opened.

The three partners ultimately purchased the building, and are now in the process of restoring it as a historic structure. The goal is to preserve the old hotel as close to its original state as possible, with some modern amenities.

Caruana said the renovation project is still underway, but is awaiting permits from the city to proceed.

“We are a little bit on hold,” he said. “It’s been months.”

He said December’s severe storm tore off much of the building’s original roof, which allowed considerable water damage to what had been pristine old woodwork and furniture inside the hotel. Caruana said the result will be more time and expense to restore what was damaged.

“We’re just going to move forward aggressively once we get the permits,” he said, adding that subcontractors were ready to do brick restoration and install beautiful pyramid-shaped skylights in the original skylight portals in the hotel’s roof.

Caruana estimated the hotel could open for business sometime in late summer.

Astoria’s Spexarth Building

ready for new tenants

In early 2007, CRBJ brought readers a story about the renovation of the historic Spexarth building in Astoria, located downtown at the corner of 8th and Commercial streets.

Bend businessman Warren Williams bought the 20,000 sq. ft. building for $700,000 at the end of 2006.

Williams spent an estimated $300,000 more to renovate the building and replace the previous metal-framed windows with period double-hung panes, to reflect the building’s early 20th century origins.

The Spexarth building, built in 1910 by August G. Spexarth, was one of the few structures that survived the 1922 Astoria fire that devastated downtown. In fact, many of the vintage photos of Astoria taken after the fire were shot from the roof of the Spexarth building.

The building survived thanks to its steel and reinforced concrete construction, then considered unique compared to surrounding wooden structures.

Real Estate Broker Peter Tadei of Myriad Properties said the Spexarth building renovation is now complete and tenants are beginning to occupy the building.

Building owner Warren W