The long-awaited deal that would bring an end to the Naito Development/Friends of the Hood River Waterfront dispute over Nichols Landing may not be quite done yet, but a big step forward was taken Monday night.
During a special meeting held prior to the evening’s Hood River City Council meeting, members of the Hood River Urban Renewal Agency authorized City Manager Steve Wheeler to move forward with executing a purchase and sale agreement with Nichols Boatworks Hood River LLC, an arm of Naito Development LLC, for a portion of the Naitos’ property, located at the south end of the Nichols Boat Basin, to be acquired as a passive use park that would eventually transfer to city ownership.
The sale is part of an agreement that was announced two weeks ago between the city, the city’s URA, Naito Development and Friends of the Hood River Waterfront. The agreement would allow the proposed Nichols Landing development, which would consist of an 88-room hotel and a 20,000-square-foot commercial building, to proceed, the creation of the park, and would entail Friends dropping their appeals of the project, which have been ongoing the past two years.
“This has been quite some time in coming,” Wheeler noted.
“Basically, this would be the Urban Renewal Agency buying approximately 125,000 square feet of land north of the to-be-constructed retaining wall,” that would form the edge of the Naito development, he explained.
Wheeler added that the purchase price of the property was $395,000, but “the payment would not be due until all existing waterfront plan/urban renewal debt is paid off; there’s currently debt to the city and debt to the port.”
He continued that the debt would also “not be due until a hotel is constructed just south of that site and is paying taxes,” which would then be used to pay off the $395,000. Wheeler said there would be no interest due and no prepayment penalty and added the agreement contains a stipulation that “if the hotel is not developed in 10 years, it would be deemed to be paid off in full and the land would stay in the agency or the city” ownership.
The sale also comes with the expectation that “the land will be kept as a passive park status without any active recreation features on it,” Wheeler told URA members, who consist of both current city council members and Port of Hood River commissioners.
“It would not be anything, for instance, like Waterfront Park, which is beautiful in its own right, but this is a whole different thing,” he explained.
Mayor Arthur Babitz made a motion to pass an ordinance that would authorize the execution of the agreement “pending approval of easements and equitable servitudes as to final form… by appropriate legal counsel.”
Babitz explained that the easements and equitable servitudes agreement includes a provision that allows Hood River conservation group Columbia Riverkeeper to serve in a “watchdog” role and ensure that the URA and/or the city not violate the terms of the agreement regarding the preservation of the property as a passive park. A specific date was not given in open session of the meeting as to when final form would be approved.
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