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Orchard site will become retail center Developer awaits final approval for a parcel at Pine and Hamrick with room for more than a dozen stores - and maybe Home Depot By GREG STILES Mail Tribune CENTRAL POINT - A 20-acre commercial development east of Bear Creek is nearing final approval from the city. The Pear Blossom Center is due for final plat approval no later than Jan. 1 according to Bill Leever, of Pulver & Leever Real Estate Company. Ground-breaking for the project would follow soon after. The question is what retailers will occupy the parcel that was a Naumes pear orchard for much of the 20th century. Leever's company is marketing the project on the northwest corner of East Pine Street and Hamrick Road for Naumes Inc. He said Wednesday that one undisclosed fast-food restaurant has reserved a space on the periphery of the property. Leever likens the design to the Rogue Valley's Albertson's shopping centers. Tenants for more than a dozen other spaces, including two large anchor sites, are being recruited. Although only one deal has been struck, Leever indicated the pace will pick up after Jan. 1. Rumored among the likely anchors is Atlanta, Ga.-based Home Depot, which has Northwest regional headquarters in Tukwila, Wash. Company representatives checked out Southern Oregon last spring. "We think we have the ability to accommodate the next big box store going into the area," said Leever, declining to be more specific. "We've got the acreage to accommodate a store with a regional draw. But if it winds up being a neighborhood center in character, we can do that, too." Central Point city planning director Tom Humphrey said the Naumes property suited some of Home Depot's requirements, but there wasn't enough freeway visibility. But that changed Aug. 9 when children playing with a lighter started a 25-acre fire that cleared out brambles and trees alike. Still, Humphrey said, "It was my understanding they were looking elsewhere in Medford." Leever said the traffic, utility and zoning woes often plaguing such developments won't slow the project - but weather could. Central Point developer and Home Builders Association of Jackson County board member Tommy Malot said it doesn't take much time to raise the big boxes once deals are signed. But he said such companies keep a low profile until they're ready to pull out all the stops. "They run under the radar until things are approved," Malot said. "Once those things happen, they happen quickly." Home Depot considers growth of income, real estate prices and government incentives among other things when it comes to an area, said Derwin Wallace of the Home Depot investor relations staff. "There is a lot of due diligence done by our real estate department," Wallace said. "We can't have a store where there's not explosive growth." He said Home Depot generally goes in when there are 26,000 households in the area and often will build a second site to keep market share in an area as it recently has in Portland. Home Depot has stores in Albany, Bend, Eugene, Redding, The closest Home Depots are in Eugene, Salem, several in the Portland area and Redding, Calif. Reach reporter Greg Stiles at 776-4463 or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.