The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde is embarking on a second round of demolition near Willamette Falls that will bring down four buildings and open the former industrial site to views from downtown Oregon City for the first time in decades.

Elder Demolition of Portland is preparing to tackle the latest work at the ex-Blue Heron paper mill. The next building to be taken down in the upcoming phase will be highly visible: the water filtration plant that once treated fluid used in the paper milling process before discharging the effluent into the Willamette River.

“It’s a relatively large structure, so it will take around three to four weeks to take down,” said Ryan Webb, engineering and planning manager for the Grand Ronde.

The structure includes several large water basins that will require demolition.

The absence of the water filtration plant will allow better views of the falls from Oregon City and Oregon Route 99E.

The entire second phase of demolition will take seven to eight weeks, according to the tribe. The Grand Ronde has secured demolition permits from the city of Oregon City, and is working with the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality on remediation.

Remediation work is ongoing, Webb said. Crews in the second phase will take the structures down to the grade level but will not disturb any subsurface contaminants. Workers are still investigating the site to determine the amount of environmental remediation that will be necessary.

The demolition work will have no traffic impacts, Webb said.

“That is one of the perks of this site,” he said. “It’s a large site. There are no public streets in it. … All of the work is contained within the site.”

More demolition is likely to follow as site planners decide which buildings should be leveled, Webb said.

The Blue Heron Paper Co. ceased operations at the site in 2011. In August 2019, the Grand Ronde acquired the 23-acre property from Tacoma, Washington, developer George Heidgerken. A fire damaged some structures in December 2020; they were removed during the first round of demolition. In March, the Grand Ronde pulled out of the intergovernmental Willamette Falls Legacy Trust process, saying other tribes and local governments were needlessly slowing the project.

Now the tribe is preparing the site for future development, with public access and some commercial space planned. Walker Macy and GBD Architects are engaged on the project.

“We’re just always excited to keep cleaning this site up,” Webb said.

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An architectural study of land near Willamette Falls that was commissioned by the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde found potential for mixed-use commercial development along with cultural gathering places and ecological restoration.

The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde have expressed interest in reconnecting tribal members with the falls and restoring natural habitat. Yet the 23-acre property that fronts downtown Oregon City has long been regarded as also holding commercial value.

Potential development could include office, hospitality, institutional or educational spaces, along with tribal spaces, public gathering spots, restaurants, retail and a long-imagined riverwalk, according to the tribal group.

“Acquiring the property at Willamette Falls let us reclaim part of our history and allowed us to once again become stewards of the land and the falls,” Cheryle A. Kennedy, chairwoman of the Confederated Tribes, stated in a news release. “Now, we head into the future with a vision for this land that helps heal it and revitalize it while telling our story and sharing our history.”

The group purchased the former Blue Heron Paper Mill property from Washington developer George Heidgerken in August 2019. The defunct mill suffered major damage in a December 2020 fire.

The study, first reported by KGW, envisions both an “urban, city-like setting” set back from the water and a “more natural, restored environment” at the river’s edge. Improvements may include beneficial salmon habitat, restored off-channel alcoves and restored topography of the falls itself.

“In the northern portion of the site, closer to downtown Oregon City and above the flood zone, there is relatively modest benefit of landscape restoration,” architecture firms GBD Architects and Walker Macy stated in the visioning study. “This area appears to have good potential for mixed-use development that can visually and physically connect to restore landscape areas along the river.”

Tribal officials said any new development would reflect the story of the Confederated Tribes and its historical and cultural ties to Willamette Falls.

Since acquiring the property, the tribal group has worked with the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality to remediate environmental degradation at the site. The group expects to soon begin a master planning process.

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The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde has completed its purchase of the Blue Heron Paper Co. mill site in Oregon City from Washington developer George Heidgerken.

The transaction places the retired Oregon City mill site in the hands of the tribal government, whose members have deep ties to Willamette Falls. The falls were a fishing and gathering site for American Indians for centuries until they were forcibly removed following the Willamette Valley Treaty of 1855.

“This is a historic day for the Grand Ronde Tribe and our people,” Cheryle A. Kennedy, chairwoman for Grand Ronde tribe, stated in a news release. “Since 1855 the government has worked to disconnect our people from our homelands. Today, we’re reclaiming a piece of those lands and resurrecting our role as caretakers to Willamette Falls – a responsibility left to us by our ancestors.”

The Confederated Tribes declined to release terms of the deal, which closed Thursday.

When the Confederated Tribes’ preliminary agreement to purchase the property was revealed in June, Chairwoman Cheryle Kennedy said some type of mixed-use development was likely at the Blue Heron site. She also said the tribal government has no intention of building a casino there.

Environmental clean-up and demolition must occur at the site before any development can happen, said Sara Thompson, deputy press secretary for the tribal government. “It’s going to take some time,” she said.

The tribal government recently completed a fishing platform at Willamette Falls.

Heidgerken, who is based in Tacoma, Washington, purchased the 23-acre mill property in 2014. He had battled public agencies regarding the site’s future before eventually agreeing to let planning proceed.

Metro, Clackamas County, the city of Oregon City and Oregon State Parks have been engaged in the Willamette Falls Legacy Project, a planning effort to guide future development and ensure public access to the waterfall.

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Developer George Heidgerken and a coalition of government partners may have broken an impasse that has stalled the Willamette Falls Legacy Project for months.

Heidgerken has signed multiple permit applications that may allow the project’s initial phase to proceed into permitting, the government partners announced, saying they are “cautiously optimistic.”

“Falls Legacy has signed permits, and we’re very appreciative,” said Laura Terway, Oregon City‘s community development director.

The project has been stuck since September, when the government partners said Heidgerken, who purchased the property in 2014, would neither sign permit applications nor submit various payments of more than $200,000 to allow the project to go forward.

Heidgerken said Wednesday he’s signed permit applications for phase one, which would allow public viewing of the massive Oregon City waterfall.

“We’ve agreed with Metro that there’s certain things we’ll let them do, and it’s called phase one,” he said. “My understanding of phase one is it gets the public access to the falls.”

The government partners are ready to apply for permits and will do so as soon as Heidgerken comes through with various payments, including tax and utility bills, that total about $280,000, Terway said.

“A strong public-private partnership requires trust, and because being a good steward of public money is a top priority, the project partners group asked the staff to wait on permit applications until after Falls Legacy follows through on their commitment to make payments to the project this spring,” she said.

Heidgerken, a Tacoma, Washington-based developer, acquired the site, the former Blue Heron paper mill, in 2014 after it had sat unused for years. He soon agreed to an easement with the government partners to construct a walkway.

Metro, along with Oregon City, Clackamas County and the state of Oregon, last year unveiled an ambitious site design by Snohetta, a major international design firm based in Oslo, Norway. Heidgerken objected, saying Metro and the other government partners were trying to elbow him out of the project. Instead of a mixed-use area with a hotel, multifamily housing and restaurants, the Metro-led design process had essentially resulted in a park, he said.

“Metro is really good at one thing – building parks,” Heidgerken said. “I don’t think the city, the people that live there, are so interested in a 25-acre park. We want jobs. We want a park. We want to support tourism, and anyone who wants to put a business there. … That project is no good unless we have apartments, condos, people – and that means breweries, a pizza parlor.”

The government partners offered this past fall to buy the site from Heidgerken, but he declined to sell. He also refused to sign the permit applications, saying they were overly broad and would essentially allow Metro to do whatever it wanted without his input.

Metro officials have said they designed the public portions of the project, and left Heidgerken to design the remaining areas. One of the core principles of the project’s master plan is economic redevelopment. Zoning at the site was changed in 2014 from industrial to mixed-use, allowing for a range of development options.

But first comes the public walkway, known as the Riverwalk.

“This plan is for the Riverwalk portion,” Terway said. “We do see it as being very catalytic for the economic redevelopment of the private side.”

Heidgerken said he’s willing to play ball as long as Metro and its partners don’t interfere with his plans for the site.

“I’m prepared to sign whatever fits that project with Metro as long as it fits the realm of whatever’s best for the project, best for Metro and best for me,” he said.

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One of the Portland-metro area’s natural gems, Willamette Falls, currently sits hidden behind a series of crumbling industrial buildings. Plans to change that got their biggest boost to date when  officials on Wednesday unveiled designs for a $60 million revitalization.

“We really recognized that we needed to approach this carefully,” said Michelle Delk, partner and discipline director for landscape architecture at Snohetta.

Snohetta, the project’s lead designer, consulted with Mayer/Reed in creating the designs. The media got a first look during a tour of the site.

Citizens will be able to see renderings in person and project officials will answer questions during on Saturday, beginning at 1:30 and 3 p.m. at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, 1945 S.E. Water Ave. in Portland. Admission to the event will be free.

“Ultimately, we envision a future hotel and a corporate headquarters down there,” Metro Councilor Carlotta Collette said. “It’s a continuation of (Oregon City‘s) downtown main street. There could be possible housing and condos.”

The first phase, expected to cost approximately $20 million, will include construction of a walkway extending from downtown Oregon City to Willamette Falls. Also, an old boiler plant and several industrial buildings will be improved to allow public access.

“The primary goal is to provide a beautiful visual of the falls,” Collette said.

Snohetta oversaw efforts to merge the views of all stakeholders into a coherent design.

“I think the first time we set foot on the site, we were fascinated by the complexity and the almost overwhelming nature of the site,” Delk said. “There is so much there today. There is a really layered landscape that embodies the rich history of the place.”

One of the technical challenges of the site is that many of the structures sit underground. Everything from cement to train trestles have been buried and built upon over the years. The design is intended to turn those challenges into assets, Delk said.

“We immediately realized we needed to be patient,” she said. “We could not assume you could understand it at first glance.

“It’s really three-dimensional. It’s about what is underneath and what’s up above. You can go up and down and explore all kinds of spaces.”

Accomplishing that without destruction of existing structures was a particular concern for area stakeholders.

“We want to peel back the exterior walls and keep the structures,” Collette said. “We want to have a see-through building (with an elevator) that you can ride up to the rooftop.”

Designs also call for a visitor’s center and information kiosks throughout the site to provide historical tidbits.

In North America, Willamette Falls trails only Niagara Falls in volume of water that runs over its rocky drop. But awareness of the Pacific Northwest gem has been limited.

“People in Oregon City didn’t know it was there,” Collette said. “We see this as a catalyst for our city.”

Willamette Falls for more than a century provided an economic boost to the surrounding area. Native Americans fished the falls and traded with others in the area. Later, European settlers established the first mechanical industry in the region. The nation’s first long-distance electric transmission facility was created to power Portland’s early transit efforts.

“It was why Portland had streetcars,” she said. “They had all this electricity and not many light switches yet.”

More recently, the area was home to a host of industrial mills.

“Oregon City has struggled,” Collette said. “Oregon City used to be Mill City. It was a blue-collar city. Mills were the center of the culture for a very long time.”

Since industrial facilities have closed, Willamette Falls has remained largely out of public view. But beginning with the river walk, city officials hope revitalization will include development of restaurants, hotels, housing and retail spaces.

“This is transformational,” Oregon City Mayor Dan Holladay said. “You are taking something that is totally industrial and repurposing it for not only the river walk but seven new blocks of downtown Oregon City. Just the amount of tourism that this will bring will be huge for Oregon City.”

The original idea for the new development took root in 2011. That is when the last of the site’s industrial mills, Blue Heron Paper Co., closed. The site’s owner, George Heidgerken, worked with project planners who coordinated efforts with Oregon City, Metro, Clackamas County and the state of Oregon.

The group worked with officials to develop the Framework Master Plan detailing a new vision for the area. They spent nearly three years discussing ideas and selling the concept to area politicians and the public.

“We really focused on the core values of the project,” said Carol Mayer-Reed, principal with Mayer/Reed. “We worked really well together. There were a lot of presentations. This was a true collaboration in the best sense for the word.”

Collette added, “This was one of the few projects where all of the partners have agreed. That made it relatively easy.”

The core values include connecting people to Willamette Falls, teaching visitors about the falls’ history, creating a catalyst for private development nearby and enhancing the ecologically diverse stretch of the Willamette River.

“We studied projects that failed and succeeded,” Collette said. “The ones that succeeded really adhered to a set of values. Those four core values really helped keep everyone’s eye on the ball.”

The project will now enter the permitting phase. Collette expects that to last a year or more because of environmental sensitivity. Once permits are granted, project designers will begin looking for contractors and other specialists. Construction will likely begin in 2018.

The goal is to have the river walk completed between 2020 and 2023. The complexity of the site makes an exact timeline difficult to nail down.

All of those buried items present potential obstacles.

“It’s tough to see where the dam begins and where the buildings begin,” Collette said. “There are two stories of concrete under (the) main street. There is just so much underground architecture. You could wander under there forever. We aren’t sure what the conditions are. Until we get into the underbelly we won’t know.”

Project developers said they don’t want to squander the opportunity to build a world-class attraction for the sake of speed.

“We want people from Europe hearing about this and wanting to see it,” Collette said.

The post Welcome to Willamette Falls appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

As Snohetta architects design Oregon City’s landmark Willamette Falls Riverwalk project, expectations are building for the firm to produce a design worthy of a landmark attraction.

The $60 million Riverwalk has emerged as a potentially regional – and perhaps even national – attraction for Oregon City.

“They’re not internationally known for no reason,” Oregon City Commissioner Nancy Ide said. “They’re one of the best. We expect the best. We have high expectations of what they (will) produce.”

Snohetta and a coalition of government agencies held a public meeting Nov. 17 at Clackamas Community College to allow stakeholders to weigh in on design options. The forum drew a packed house.

The Norwegian firm and design partners Mayer/Reed and Dialog are expected to return in late February 2017 with a preferred design for the Riverwalk.

A landscape architect and Snohetta partner, Michelle Delk, is leading the design team. She said she was struck by Willamette Falls on her first visit.

“It’s so moving and powerful and intriguing and mysterious all at the same time,” Delk said. “You can see so much potential and so much natural beauty that’s already there. It makes your head spin.”

Snohetta has identified six “key moments” on the Riverwalk. Designers are looking for overlook areas or promontories and other spaces where people can be close to the water.

“The goal of this is the Riverwalk is much more than a walkway,” Delk said.

Designers are looking to build several viewpoints and connections to the rest of town, likely including Clackamette Park.

“There can be many paths and many experiences that connect Willamette Falls to the larger community,” Delk said. “We hope to find opportunities to engage the falls in many different ways.”

Designers want to make sure the Riverwalk works well in every season and time of day.

“We do see the design, ultimately, as one that engages the natural qualities of the site,” Delk said.

Snohetta’s involvement has caught the attention of the Portland area’s architecture community. The firm is known for projects such as Norway’s national opera house in Oslo, the National September 11 Memorial Museum Pavilion in New York City and a proposed reconstruction in Times Square. The firm has been lauded by architecture critics for groundbreaking designs.

Locally, Delk and Snohetta are also leading the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry’s master plan for the nonprofit’s 17-acre site in Southeast Portland. The team planning development of the James Beard Public Market has been invited to participate in OMSI’s master plan after abandoning a site at the Morrison Bridge’s west end.

Delk is personally involved in the OMSI master plan and two major Northern California projects – the expansion of the world-renowned French Laundry restaurant in Napa Valley, and a new public plaza in downtown San Francisco. She also helped design the under-construction, 240,000-square-foot central library in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

At the Willamette Falls Riverwalk, ensuring public access is emerging as a critical element. The land previously was under private ownership. The site, the former Blue Heron paper mill, is owned by Falls Legacy, a limited-liability company controlled by Tacoma, Washington, developer George Heidgerken.

Heidgerken is also looking to develop a 415-acre former mill site in Gardiner, near Reedsport, and a retired Olympia brewery facility in Tumwater, Washington.

“The most important piece is the public access,” Ide said. “It needs to be inviting. It needs to be attractive. It needs to flow.”

Ground is scheduled to be broken on the Willamette Falls Riverwalk in mid-2018, said Alex Perove, Metro’s senior parks planner. A general contractor for the project is likely to be selected in early 2018, she said.

The Riverwalk project involves a long list of agencies, including Metro, the state of Oregon, Clackamas County, Oregon City and Portland General Electric, which operates the hydroelectric dam.

CH2M is working on habitat restoration for native and migratory species. Five tribes with historical ties to Willamette Falls are also consulting on the project.

For Oregon City, the project stands to be a much-needed shot in the arm. City leaders have in recent years courted developers to build on a privately-owned landfill site. A proposal to build a Cabela’s sporting goods store on the landfill fell through, and in 2014, the store was completed in Tualatin instead.

Oregon City’s landfill property remains vacant. A developer had recently expressed interest in the property, city commissioner Brian Shaw said. But voters earlier this month rejected extension of Oregon City’s urban renewal program, putting that potential project on uncertain ground.

“We’re looking at options, obviously, because we don’t want to see that thing slide away again,” Shaw said. “We’d like to be prepared for a project if it were to come to fruition on the landfill.”

Oregon City was ready to offer an $18 million loan to assist the Cabela’s project, Shaw said.

The Riverwalk project gives Oregon City the chance to become nationally known as something other than the terminus of the Oregon Trail. City leaders hope it could spur redevelopment downtown. At the same time, some of the city’s 35,831 residents worry about losing what they have.

“We kind of like the small-town feel and people don’t want to lose that,” Ide said, “but when you have a national site you need to share it, not hoard it.”

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A Tacoma, Washington-based developer has agreed to buy a 415-acre former mill site in Gardiner, an unincorporated Douglas County area north of Reedsport.

The buyer is George Heidgerken, through Industrial Harbor USA LLC – an entity registered in Washington.

Heidgerken owns both the former Blue Heron mill site in Oregon City (home of the Willamette Falls Riverwalk project) and a retired Olympia brewery site in Tumwater, Washington, that is also targeted for development.

The seller is International Paper – a publicly traded, Fortune 500 company based in Memphis, Tennessee. The company closed the paper mill and sawmill in 1998 after decades of service.

“We can confirm that terms of an agreement have been reached and we hope to close on the deal within the next several months,” International Paper spokesman Tom Ryan said in an email Friday.

The sale is in escrow, and scheduled to close in the next “couple of weeks,” said Tom Vaughn, executive director of development for Industrial Harbor USA.

The sprawling property includes a campground, water rights to the Tahkenitch and Siltcoos lakes, power from Bonneville and Douglas Electric substations on site, a permitted landfill, a 3-mile short line railroad and 10 shop buildings comprising 150,000 square feet.

“The site is unique on the Oregon Coast and probably on the entire West Coast,” Vaughn said. “We just recognize a lot of opportunity to make a positive impact to the local economy.”

It’s not clear what Heidgerken and Vaughn intend to do with the site. Vaughn, an environmental scientist who works for Heidgerken, said he could not discuss plans in detail.

“Right now, I’m not comfortable saying, but it will definitely have an impact on the local economy,” he said. “It is jobs-focused. It will reflect the heritage of the area, and it will be environmentally friendly.”

Neither the buyer nor seller would disclose the sale price. But the site was most recently listed for $6 million, including water rights. It was first listed at $10 million for the real estate, and an additional $12 million for water rights.

The Gardiner mill site has been on the market since 2009, said John Brown, a Eugene broker who has represented the property since that time.

Over the years, prospective buyers including a barge builder, a beer distributor and an RV park entrepreneur expressed interest in the site, Brown said. Google seriously considered buying the site about four years ago, but declined because it was too remote to quickly get service technicians to the property, he said.

“It’s a unique property that has to draw a very unique category of buyer,” Brown said.

The southern Oregon coast has suffered economically from the decline in Oregon’s logging and fishing industries. In March, federal regulators rejected plans to open a liquefied natural gas export terminal in Coos Bay.

Jennifer Arnold, a Douglas County planner, said an electrical permit is in the works for the Gardiner mill site. Issuance of permits for the property has been on hold because it is located in a floodplain, she said.

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Oregon City officials are seeking a consultant to research the cultural history of the former Blue Heron Paper Co. site and compile a report that will assist the team designing a public path through the property.

A request for proposals has been issued for a consultant to complete a “cultural resource/cultural landscape” report for the estimated $30 million Willamette Falls riverwalk project. The path for pedestrians and bicyclists along the Willamette River, adjacent to downtown Oregon City, will pass through the Blue Heron site and Portland General Electric property to give the public access to nearby Willamette Falls for the first time in decades.

The project has been hailed by Oregon City officials as the first step toward revitalization of the ex-industrial site, which has sat vacant since 2011, when the paper mill shut down.

The consultant’s report will assist Oregon City and other project partners, including developer George Heidgerken, Metro, Clackamas County and the state of Oregon, to ensure the riverwalk design expresses the cultural history of the site and nearby Willamette Falls. The draft report is scheduled to be completed as project design begins so that the design team will have access to information on historic resources, according to a summary of the RFP on the Oregon City website.

Proposals are due by Feb. 4 at 4 p.m. More information is available at .

Qualifications include academic degrees and professional experience in history, archaeology, architectural history, architecture or historic architecture.

Metro officials plan to later this week issue a separate RFP for a team to provide schematic design for the project. The chosen cultural resources consultant will be integrated into this schematic design process.

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University of Oregon graduate architecture student Jacob Simonson is fascinated by the challenge of bringing people back to the former Blue Heron Paper Co. site in Oregon City.

“It’s kind of an intriguing problem – more of a difficult problem – to address,” he said while peering over a large-scale model of the abandoned paper mill site.

Simonson and other students are building the model as they research the history, conflicts and redevelopment potential for the 23-acre industrial site. The dozen students are part of a yearlong studio class taught by John Yeon Center executive director Randy Gragg and THA Architecture principal Becca Cavell at the UO Department of Architecture in Portland.

The class examines ways to reuse the vacant industrial buildings that were abandoned when the Blue Heron paper mill closed in 2011, reconnect the site to downtown Oregon City and take advantage of the site’s proximity to Willamette Falls. At the conclusion of the studio next summer, each student will present their designs for redeveloping individual buildings on the site.

The course, one of the last the students will take before they graduate, is geared toward designing adaptive reuse projects, Gragg said.

“It’s the last opportunity for the students to be their own client,” he said. “It continues the imagining of the site. This is sort of an act of imagination for what can happen with the building stock.”

On Tuesday, the students marked the end of the studio’s first term with a presentation before the site’s new owner – Tacoma, Wash.-based developer George Heidgerken – and design professionals who created a master plan to encourage redevelopment.

The students shared what they’ve learned so far and sought professional feedback on their initial ideas for adaptive reuse projects. These include production facilities for bikes, food, canoes, outdoor shoes and other apparel. Students are also exploring design of fish and food markets, a mixed-use building, a brewery, an industrial design research institute, an outdoor camp and an interfaith institute.

One of the biggest appeals of the course was working with an actual site and reimagining existing buildings, Simonson said.

“This was just an intriguing site (with) a lot of potential,” he said. “I really enjoy and have done adaptive reuse projects.”

For the first term, the focus was on gathering as much background as possible to eventually inform students’ designs, class member Alex Brooks said. For inspiration, the class twice toured the site with Oregon City officials and traveled to Minneapolis, Minn. to see the Mill City Museum, which is built on the ruins of an abandoned flour mill.

“This studio was a major information download,” Brooks said. “It was about absorbing the site (and) the opportunities and the challenges.”

As a class, the students concluded that they would primarily seek to answer three questions over the course of the studio: What brought people to the site? Why did they leave? And finally, what will bring them back?

After hearing the students’ presentation, Walker Macy principal Mike Zilis praised their approach. The Portland-based landscape architecture and planning firm created for site redevelopment a master plan that recently was approved by the Oregon City Commission.

Zilis reminded the students to embrace what he believes is one of the site’s largest assets: a prime view of Willamette Falls. Any redevelopment should bring the falls back to prominence that was lost because of longtime industrial use on the site, he said.

“This place has been masked,” he said. “It’s been blown up and manipulated, and people can’t see it anymore. The way to build a market and bring people back (is) going to be about the draw of the site.”

Heidgerken said his team is exploring many redevelopment possibilities, such as a brewery or restaurant. Like the UO architecture students, team members have been careful to absorb the history of the site and consider which existing buildings should be preserved, he said.

“It’s not a matter of $5 million here, $30 million here,” he said. “It’s a matter of the site telling you what to do and the history of the site … What we want with this site is not something you see once. We want something that’s attractive to the general public. You come here once and you come back.”

At this point, plans to redevelop the Blue Heron site are open-ended. Heidgerken said he appreciates the architecture students’ visions.

“We don’t know (the plan) yet, but we will and meetings like this help,” he said.

Graduate architecture student Adrienne Fainman said class members are looking forward to sharing their final ideas with the developer.

“In June, we’re going to be presenting 12 projects,” she told Heidgerken. “We’re going to be pouring our hearts into this. We’re going to be able to hand that over to you – 12 fantasy projects.”

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The new owner of a former mill site in Oregon City has big dreams for its redevelopment. George Heidgerken, a Tacoma, Wash.-based developer who in May purchased the ex-Blue Heron Paper Co. property for $2.2 million, thinks its location on the banks of the Willamette River, slightly downstream from Willamette Falls, has great potential.

“That site has incredible opportunity for kayakers and riverboats of all kinds,” he said. “We’re willing to spend a lot of time and energy designing a really cool situation for the kayaks and the people watching them.”

Heidgerken said he and his sons are all avid kayakers, and he thinks Willamette Falls and the river below it could become a popular kayaking destination if there were direct access to the water and a way to navigate the 40-foot-tall falls.

“The problem now is we can’t get them over the falls, but we’re already in talks with people who are in charge of water to see how we can change that,” he said. “We want the kayakers not to be hidden, but to be a big part of the show for people who are sitting right there.”

Heidgerken envisions part of the 23-acre property becoming restaurant and pub space from which diners could watch kayakers running through courses. Those eateries would be as unique and historic as their location, he said.

“We want to create something substantial that may be (a throwback) from the past,” he said. “There are all kinds of special restaurants that were really good in their time and people wonder why they closed. If we could bring some of them back we’d like to do that.”

One example Heidgerken offered was the long-closed Pixie Kitchen in Lincoln City that touted serving “heavenly food on the Oregon Coast.”

“We’re not just looking at the site and the legacy of what occurred there; we’re looking all over the state,” he said. “This is a special place; that’s the reason you pick up a site like that is to figure it out and make something special out of it.”

Christina Robertson-Gardiner, a city planner in Oregon City, said the Community Development Department has been working closely with Heidgerken, but said he hasn’t informed the city of any specific plans. Officials are in the final stages of working out an easement plan with Heidgerken in order to move forward with the Willamette Falls Riverwalk project.

“He is free to go forth and figure out what he wants to do,” Robertson-Gardiner said. “He’s trying to find investors, and we’re excited to see if any of his ideas come to fruition.”

The Oregon City Commission on Nov. 5 approved the second reading of a zone change proposal from traditional industrial to a combination similar to what is used in Oregon City’s downtown.

“The big picture planning started before George came in, but now he’s obviously included,” Robertson-Gardiner said. “Developing the site would almost double our historic downtown area, so these are two parallel paths we’re going to be walking over the next few years.”

Heidgerken said his next step is to bring in a historian to assess the site and determine which buildings are historically significant and which should be razed. Oregon City did the same thing when creating a master plan for the site, but Heidgerken said he plans to do it anyway.

“We don’t intend to do anything without approval from the public because we want to stay out of trouble with everybody,” he said. “Metro has a head start on us with the vision, and we don’t want to throw a wrench into anything they want to do.”

The city identified five structures that must be preserved during any development. Heidgerken said his team has identified others that aren’t historically important. He said he’d like to demolish those and clean the place up.

Robertson-Gardiner said that the city and Heidgerken seem to be on the same page in regard to development and that, at this point, he can start applying for traditional land use permits when he’s ready to move forward.

“The reason this site sold is that we were looking for someone who had a high tolerance for risk and also had money, but those people are few and far between,” she said. “Finding someone who has both is difficult, but that is George.”

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