The First LS Sale Has Been Completed--We Think

According to a deed filed with Deschutes County at 4:09 PM, Dec. 19, 2007, Les Schwab has received title to Parcel 2, 12 acres, for consideration of $3,671.236.80. That is the $7 per sq. ft. price. The following is page two of the recording:

The recording states that the actual sale was witnessed Dec. 7 by a Notary Public, as it was executed by Eric King, acting City Manager. It was recorded shortly before the 12/19/2007 City Council meeting. There doesn't seem to have been any mention of it at the Council Meeting, but I'll listen to the recording and see if it was.

So I guess the whole Contingency Removal Notice thing was ignored, as I received a response from the City dated Dec. 21, after the sale was recorded, that no Contingency Removal Notice from Les Schwab had been received by the City.

UPDATE: I just listened to the 12/19 Work Session and "Jerry" (I thought it was Eric King at first, and it might be as the recording is hard to understand at that point) stated that "Focusing on the Les Schwab headquarters for one moment, we think the sale is going to close this week, we think there will be a big check coming to the City yet this week, and so we're delighted (nervous, happy laughter from Council) to have that happening, pretty much on schedule. And of course they've broken ground and are doing a fast track permitting process out there."

He goes on to state that they know they need to get a Master Plan for JR in place as soon as they can, and Eric hopes it is the Cooper Robertson Master Plan, i.e. the one Kuratek and Holzman worked on. The target, the goal, is to get the first 50 acres beyond Les Schwab to market as soon as possible, hopefully by the 3rd quarter of 2008. This will require a Land Use Master Plan to allow the City to pursue zone changes and land partitions. Assuming the trips are available at Cooley and 97 they can prepare to develop of the next 250 acres.

The City is counting on selling that first 50 acres, most likely at a comparable price to the LS sale, to get us out from under the $15M we are going to be into it by then. While, that may not be all we are into it, as the Cooley/97 mid-term upgrade is going to cost another $37-40 million, if all goes as planned.

We've already seen how things go "as planned", with the $1.6M upgrade to the Knife River contract for the LS driveway.

My question is simple--commercial is going to be going under next year, so who is going to buy land in JR? Do we have anybody working on selling it? It seems like a huge risk. What happens if that 50 acres just sits there along with all the other RE?