COBURG — Almost all of the space is now spoken for at the business park developed in the former Monaco Coach complex in Coburg.

Pacific Headwear, a baseball cap embroidery business in Eugene, confirmed Thursday that it will move by January to a building in the business park now known as Coburg North.

And another large manufacturer just outside Eugene reportedly is close to signing for the last available building at the 80-acre business park, off Interstate 5.

If that comes through, “we’d all be done, but it’s not a completed deal,” said Steve Lee, Coburg North’s owner/developer.

In addition to closing in on the final occupants for all eight of Coburg North’s existing buildings, Lee said he is in the running to build a 40,000-square-foot headquarters and crime lab for the Oregon State Police at the business park.

He said he found out two to three weeks ago that Coburg North is a finalist for the project.

“We’re real excited,” Lee said. “The tenants would love to have it; Coburg would love to have it; I’m a huge supporter of that industry. … We’re going to be as competitive as possible for it to be here as part of the (former) Monaco campus.”

An influx of companies and employees into the business park should generate tax revenue for Coburg and jump-start business activity there.

“We certainly hope it will be helping Coburg,” Lee said. “Having a lot more people in town going to restaurants and businesses seems really positive.”

Lane Transit District is set to resume bus service to the business park by September, he said.

“The happiest thing is just to look out and not see the empty parking lots,” Lee said.

“Any new jobs are significant to help with recession recovery,” said Petra Schuetz, Coburg city administrator and planning director. “Previously that park did house over 2,500 jobs, so we probably will not see that same number of jobs in that concentration in the near future. But any new industry and recovery there is certainly welcome.”

Lee and his wife Sally bought Monaco’s 80-acre property in 2012, three years after the recession and plummeting sales pushed the Coburg-based RV manufacturer into bankruptcy.

Back then, 96 percent of the complex was vacant; today it is almost full, with the possibility of breaking ground on the new building, Lee said.

“My wife and I are just kind of in awe,” Lee said. “We’re flattered that people believe in us, and I think it goes to the site and the city.

“I’m looking out at the Coburg Hills,” he said during a phone interview Thursday afternoon. “It’s a darn good view.”

A number of factors played a role in helping the Lees transform the vacant industrial site into a successful business park.

With its easy access to I-5, Coburg is an attractive location, said Jeff Elder, the broker representing the property. “The buildings were in like-new condition and they were at a size that appealed to a number of users. Most all of the users are local.”

The buildings range from 3,700 square feet, which Eugene tech firm CBT Nuggets is using as an off-site data center and a video production center, to 335,797 square feet, which the unnamed large local manufacturer reportedly is interested in.

The business park properties are structured as industrial condominiums, which is unusual in Oregon.

“They’re not very common,” Lee said. “I don’t know of another one in Oregon.”

Individual owners are responsible for the units they buy and the Lees maintain the units they lease, as well as the common areas, such as lawns and parking lots.

“The bigger users wanted to own their buildings — they didn’t want to be tenants, so the condo process was critical to making this work,” Lee said.

The condo idea came about because the property had been developed as one big campus, with utilities running throughout it, making it difficult to break the land into individual lots, Lee said.

The Lees bought the property for an undisclosed amount. They have spent $2 million to $3 million cleaning and remodeling it, Lee said.

“We cleaned and polished this thing like a car every day,” he said. He said he had all the bathrooms in his buildings cleaned every week on the off-chance someone taking a tour would need to use the facilities.

“Something instilled in me as a young person was, whatever you have, keep it clean and nice and people will respect you for it,” Lee said.

It also helped that Lee had an insider’s understanding of Monaco’s buildings and campus, having worked as the company’s construction representative in the 1990s when the complex was built, he said.

“I would never have taken this on if I hadn’t been over here (helping to create it),” he said. With 850,000 square feet — 1 million square feet counting covered storage areas — and a bit over 80 acres, “it would just scare you,” he said.

The biggest challenge getting the project off the ground was “to get people to believe,” Lee said.

“The only thing we had going on was the (RV) service center Navistar was leasing,” he said. Allied Recreation Group, an RV manufacturer based in Decatur, Ind., now operates the service center.

“Nobody wanted to be the first (to locate there),” Lee said. “They thought this could just stay vacant. I think that was our biggest stumbling block.”

The path began to clear when Lee’s friend, Scott Williams, president of Hamilton Construction in Springfield, agreed to buy a 12,440-square foot building at the park’s northern edge.

“I thank him every day that he believed in us enough to move his corporate headquarters out here,” Lee said. “Even though it was a small building, that brought a lot of credibility.”

Then other businesses began to step forward. JAJ Enterprises, the Eugene-based parent of several vehicle glass companies, bought a 202,535 square-foot building.

APEL Extrusions, an aluminum company based in Canada, agreed to lease, with an option to own, a 111,880-square foot building. APEL plans to move its 55-person West Coast operations to Coburg from Springfield in early October, plant manager David Moore said.

Carry-on Trailer Corp., a cargo trailer manufacturer based in Lavonia, Ga., bought a 34,260-square-foot building in January.

Now Pacific Headwear plans to buy a 65,000-square foot building and build a 30,000 square-foot addition, President Don DeZarn said. He had planned to expand at Greenhill Technology Park in west Eugene, but discovered he could expand in Coburg for about half the cost. He said he plans to move the company and its 120 employees to Coburg by January. DeZarn said he hopes to grow the company to 160 employees in the next three to five years.

Follow Sherri on Twitter @sburimcdonald . Email sherri@registerguard.com .