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New Winetrout construction will start soon By MELISSA MARTIN Mail Tribune Crews are scheduled to begin construction in late January on the Winetrout building, a six-story downtown mid-rise proposed for the corner of Main and Fir streets. The $20 million mixed-use building will have office windows facing Table Rock and Roxy Ann, eight luxury condominiums and a 400-space parking garage. "The footprint will be roughly the size of a football field," said Greg Bessert, an owner of KSC Development and Winetrout Properties LLC, of Battleground, Wash. Building named for businessman The Winetrout building is named for Clarence A. Winetrout, who opened Crater Lake Motors in 1938. Crater Lake Motors built a "modernistic building" in 1950 on the corner of Main and Fir in downtown Medford. That building was torn down last year to make room for a new six-story Winetrout structure for offices, condominiums and a parking garage. In 1960, Crater Lake Motors sold the building to Trowbridge and Flynn Electric and built across the street, said Jim Coleman, whose father, Hugh Coleman, bought the dealership from Winetrout. In 1985, Crater Lake Motors moved to Biddle Road and Scan Design and the American Cancer Society's Discovery Center built on the site, he said. Crater Lake Motors also had a truck department where the Mail Tribune offices are now at Fir and Sixth. An Applegate Valley native, Winetrout started the Ford Agency in Grants Pass in 1920. His son, Art, a World War II Navy veteran, was stricken with polio and died four days after a 12-hour ambulance ride to a Portland hospital. That motivated air traffic controller George Milligan to start Mercy Flights, Southern Oregon's air ambulance service. "When people start seeing this go up, they will love it. I think it's going to be such a knock-out building, that space will rent quickly." KSC Development has invested $2.5 million so far while the Medford Urban Renewal Agency has spent $950,000 for the land purchase and the demolition of the Crater Lake Motors building that stood on the site for 50 years. Urban renewal plans to spend $8 million more for the parking garage, sidewalks, storm drains and underground utilities, said director Don Burt. The money comes from tax increment financing, in which assessed property values are frozen for 20 years and the increases are used to make improvements in the district, which stretches from the South Gateway Shopping Center to Medford's downtown core. "This will be the biggest project in downtown Medford in 50 years," Burt said. Standing 72-feet high and taking up a full block, Winetrout's exterior will have brick and glass accents, ground-floor awnings and upper floor decks. Bessert describes the building as having "twin towers." Condominiums ranging in size from 1,250 to 2,680 square feet will occupy the top floor of the "south tower" and offices will occupy the "north tower." A ground-floor lobby will connect them, Bessert said. The building will wrap around the ventilated parking garage on three sides, Main, Evergreen and Eighth streets. Parking will be exposed on the Fir Street side. Original plans called for 30 to 50 apartments, but the developer's research showed they wouldn't be profitable, partly because Medford's market for rents is lower than Oregon's average. "When you get into mid-rise buildings, the cost per square feet for construction runs high, compared to a two-story townhouse that's stick built," Bessert said. "It's unlikely we could pull enough of a premium in rent in the downtown location to make residential work." Medford is ready for a mixed-used project that will encourage people to work and live at the same place, said Medford consultant Mike Montero, one of the Winetrout partners. "In communities like Portland and Seattle, some high-profile, professional people prefer this lifestyle, working and living downtown," Montero said. "They want to be within walking distance of nice restaurants, theater, art museums and the library." In San Diego, for example, young professionals pay a premium to live as close to their downtown offices as possible. KSC Development has been considering building in Southern Oregon for five years, Bessert said. The firm has under its belt $1.5 million commercial projects from Seattle to San Diego. Builder Magazine this past year named KSC/Holt Homes the Portland area's fourth-largest residential builder. "We've been watching (Medford's) demographics, the business growth and the downtown revitalization," Bessert said. "Winetrout was the right project for us at the right time." Winetrout may be the crown jewel of Medford Urban Renewal's accomplishments since the agency's creation 14 years ago, a board member said. "This is probably the largest economic development project undertaken with the city," said consultant Skip Patterson, a Medford Urban Renewal board member since 1987. "The MURA staff has scrutinized this project more closely than anything else they've ever done," Patterson said. "They wanted to make it a success. With Don Burt working with Greg Bessert, it's got a tremendous team moving forward on it." Reach reporter Melissa Martin at 776-4497, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.