DEVELOPMENT
A logging town reinvents itself: Home Sweet second home?
SWEET HOME — Some people want to vacation in the best of
locations. Others, like developer Phil Ordway, look for the
next best — those up-and-coming places that have yet to
be discovered. And he thinks he’s found the next great
Oregon getaway in a most unlikely spot.
Ordway’s bet on the next second-home hotspot is the
Willamette Valley logging town of Sweet Home. This little slice
of rural Oregon, about 100 miles west of Bend and 100 miles
south of Portland, is about to become home to the Santiam River
Club, a 300-acre planned community, on the site of a former
timber mill.
The site offers 450 home lots of one- to 1½ acres,
which are available for $205,000-$275,000 depending on their
location. The choices: fir forest, wetland or on a pond. Ordway
expects most buyers will be baby boomers looking for a second
home in Oregon — the ones who don’t crave the
sunshine of the high desert or the shoreline of the coast.
The club will feature outdoor recreation attractions including
a lodge with an upscale restaurant and library, an outfitters
cabin, an adventure camp, and a spa. The extras, none of which
currently exists in Sweet Home, will help the cause of
attracting potential buyers.
Most noteworthy is that the Santiam River Club is being cast
as a nature preserve with some “carefully introduced
humans.” According to Ordway, before anyone is allowed to
build on their lot, proposed homes must be reviewed and found
to meet Energy Star requirements for energy efficiency. In
addition, 169 acres will be preserved as a wildlife sanctuary
for threatened species such as the black-tailed deer.
Kevin Strong, vice president of the Sweet Home Economic
Development Group, is optimistic that the development will have
a positive effect on Sweet Home’s economy. “The
proposed development does a great job of playing to Sweet
Home’s strengths. We are no longer just a mill
town,” he says.
Only time will tell if the Santiam River Club will be
successful in competing with its drier neighbors to the east
such as Sunriver. But the development is both Ordway’s
gamble and his dream. He’s building “a fun,
relaxed, sustainable place for residents, kids and
grandkids.” Will they come?
— Colleen Moran
