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Tenants scramble as Medford plans parking lot By MELISSA MARTIN Mail Tribune Six nonprofit agencies and small businesses hope to find new office space before the building they are leasing in downtown Medford is demolished to make room for parking spaces. "This building is so important for social services and for people who are falling through the cracks," said Kate Baxted. Downtown vacancies leave nonprofits in bind The nonprofit agencies in the Sixth Street Plaza may have trouble finding similar office space downtown. The vacancy rate is 3 percent in downtown, compared to 10 percent at the Rogue Valley Mall and 5 percent in the city's non-downtown areas, said Scott Henselman of Henselman Realty & Management. Only seven office spaces are currently available downtown on the ground floor. "People drive downtown and see vacant buildings and think it's all vacant," Henselman said. "But everything is centralized and packed together so the vacancies stand out more." Henselman is the property manager for the Sixth Street Plaza. He's helping search for new locations for the Disability Advocacy Social Independent Living and Set Free Christian Fellowship. They need centrally-located, low-rent office space that is accessible to wheelchairs. The disability group is considering a building on Ivy Street that leases for $200 more a month than the current site, plus utilities, said director Kate Baxted. However, the curb cutouts are not adequate for wheelchairs. Neither does she doesn't know if the group's $55,000 annual budget can absorb the higher costs. Property owners who lease to non-profits can get a discount on their property tax bills, said Jackson County Assessor Dan Ross. Leases must be at least one year and must be equal to or greater than the tax-savings discount. Baxted is the director of Disability Advocacy Social Independent Living, which has operated a drop-in resource center in the Sixth Street Plaza for two years. Her office serves 450 people a year. The Medford Urban Renewal Agency bought the building near the corner of Sixth and Grape streets for $585,000 in 1992 with the intention of creating parking lots, said MURA director Don Burt. The agency leased to tenants at a discounted rate, telling them at the time that the building would eventually be demolished, Burt said. "We have a shortage of long-term parking - anything over four hours - in that quadrant of town," Burt said. "If we had business development there, we'd have no parking to accommodate it and you can't have business without customer parking." One of those businesses facing downtown parking difficulties is the Mail Tribune, which may take over part of the lot in a land swap with MURA. Parking became a premium after the newspaper expanded in 1993, constructing and furnishing $7.3 million office and production buildings at Fir and Sixth streets. Mail Tribune publisher Grady Singletary said the newspaper made a commitment to downtown with the construction, but recognized it would need to address parking concerns. "Providing convenient and safe parking is important to our employees, as well as our customers," Singletary said. The Mail Tribune may exchange a dirt parking lot it owns at the corner of Sixth and Holly streets, across from the Holly Theater, for a portion of the Sixth Street Plaza property. The newspaper also owns a second lot, at the corner of Fifth and Grape streets. If the exchange goes through, the Holly Street lot would be used by the urban renewal for a 40-space customer and employee parking lot, Burt said. If there's a future need, the agency may build a parking garage on the site, at a cost of $12,000 to $15,000 per space, Burt said. At the Sixth Street Plaza site, the Mail Tribune would take over a portion of the current parking lot and use it for employee parking. Urban renewal would use the area where the two-story office complex currently sits for long-term leased employee parking, Burt said. The restaurant at the corner of Grape and Sixth streets will remain. But the occupants in the adjacent Sixth Street Plaza must move quickly to find new space. The two-story plaza building has provided a way for non-profit agencies to work together, said Chad McComas, pastor of Set Free Christian Fellowship. He shares an office with a Hispanic counseling ministry and a Christian 12 Step Recovery group. "We serve a lot of people who don't have cars and can't get around very easily," McComas said. "The best place we can be is downtown." The Muscular Dystrophy Association Inc., which raises $330,000 annually and serves 170 local families, is also located in the plaza. There are also several for-profit businesses, including Medford Beauty Salon, which offers $5 haircuts and $20 perms and draws many walking customers who don't have transportation, said beautician Juanita Moore. She and the owner may be moving to House of Beauty on Edwards Street behind Medford Bowling Lanes. Another business is Billing Connection of Southern Oregon, started in the plaza two years ago by owner Brenda Anderson. It will cost her about $3,000 to move to Office Park, at the corner of Riverside Avenue and Barnett Road, she said. "I keep thinking of that song, 'They paved paradise and put in a parking lot,'" Anderson said. 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.