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The 154-acre former Weyerhaeuser lumber mill in Dallas will be sold at auction Aug. 28, and auctioneer Joe Tarpley suspects it could go for a bargain price.

No one is really interested in buying and operating a lumber mill these days, he said. Plus, Dallas is 15 miles west of Salem. Given the property’s relatively remote location and size, he doesn’t expect a huge crowd at the auction.

Weyerhaeuser plant auction

Location: Dallas

Date: Aug. 28

Parcels available:

• Three residential/farm tracts (6.5 acres, 8.5 acres, and 14 acres with frontage on Ash Creek).
• One industrial tract (19.86 acres with office and maintenance buildings).
• One industrial tract (26.95 acres with a log yard).
• One 66-acre mill site (including office, manufacturing and storage buildings and all remaining equipment).
• Two commercial tracts (nine acres and three acres east of Uglow Avenue).

“When you have a sale like this, you don’t get a lot of people, but you do get very interested people,” Tarpley said. “Hopefully, they will have deep pockets.”

However, pockets may not need to be deep. With a small crowd, he said, auction prices may stay low.

Tarpley is supervising the auction for , an auction and brokerage firm in Rome, Ga., that is acting as an agent for Weyerhaeuser. The Dallas lumber mill closed in 2009, seven years after it was acquired by Weyerhaeuser in a hostile takeover of Willamette Industries.

Because of the size of the property, auctioneers are going to try to sell it off in smaller chunks, including three parcels zoned for residential and farm use, two parcels zoned for industrial use, two parcels zoned for commercial use, and a 66-acre mill site with office, manufacturing and storage buildings. All remaining equipment will be included.

Scott Fertilizer Co. and have short-term leases for the mill’s nine-acre warehouse. Also, Dallas firefighters use the site for training.

Carl and Patty Van Well have operated the building supply store since 1976, leasing the land first from Willamette Industries and then from Weyerhaeuser. Carl Van Well said he is not nervous about the prospect of a new landlord, and may even become his own for the first time.

鈥淲e’ll just have to wait and see,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e’ll definitely be at the auction.鈥�

In fact, he may consider a deal with the city. John Nelson, interim city manager, said Dallas officials might go in on a bid with the Van Wells to buy the parcel that includes both the building supply store and the existing firefighting training facility.

City officials have tried for years to get Weyerhaeuser executives to donate the land to the city, Nelson said, but without success.

A successful bid might also enable city officials to expand the training facility, he said. Outright ownership of the property would be preferable to the current lease, he added.

鈥淭he lease is kind of old now,鈥� Nelson said. 鈥淚t’s a month-to-month sort of thing.鈥�

The training facility has a small tower used by firefighters.

鈥淚t’s probably at the end of its life,鈥� Community Development Director Jason Locke said.

Prospective bidders can inspect the property on Aug. 27, between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Tarpley said 10 percent of the purchase price is due on the day of the auction, with the rest due in 30 days. People also can bid online by going to www.johndixon.com and registering under “upcoming auctions.”