The city has spent about half of its voter-approved $29 million in bond money.
BY JACOB PALMER | DIGITAL NEWS EDITOR
The city of Bend has spent about half of its voter-approved $29 million in bond money.
The most expensive projects are now entering their costliest phases, the Bend Bulletin reports.
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The district has spent $3.52 million building its safe passage and whitewater play area at the Colorado Avenue dam, a project the district is now calling the Bend Whitewater Park. Up the street, the district has spent $3.40 million on the pavilion, a covered and lighted seasonal ice rink that will host court sports during the warmer months of the year. The whitewater park is budgeted for $9.68 million, [director of finance Lindsay] Lombard said, including a $1.13 million contribution from the Bend Paddle Trail Alliance; the pavilion is projected to cost $11.35 million. She said both projects appear to be on target to finish on budget, with the whitewater park expected to be done this fall and the pavilion late this year.
Michelle Healy, the district’s director of strategic planning and design, said at both the whitewater park and the pavilion, key components are due to be installed before the end of the fiscal year. At the whitewater park, the hydraulic system and bladders used to create waves will be going in soon, and crews will also be at work completing a new pedestrian bridge over the river and a habitat channel where fish and other wildlife can thrive. At the pavilion, work will shift from putting up the steel beams to interior finishes, pouring the concrete slab that will lie beneath the skating surface and installing the chemical chillers that allow for the making of ice.
The city expects major aspects of the pavilion and whitewater park projects will be done by the end of this fiscal year.
In southeast Bend, Hayden Homes is planning an 85-home subdivision.
From the Bend Bulletin:
The project, called Deer Ridge, will feature homes priced for first-time homeowners, said Geoff Harris, Hayden Homes regional director in Central Oregon. Homes will range from three-bedroom, two-bath units up tosix-bedroom, three-bath units. The site is along the west side of Brosterhous Road between Murphy and Knott roads.
“Primarily, our target is the price-conscious, value-driven homebuyer,” Harris said Tuesday. “There’s plenty of sparkle in NorthWest Crossing and Tetherow, and we don’t build homes in neighborhoods like that. That’s a very specific buyer with a lot of resources. Those homes aren’t affordable to people that make somewhere around median income, plus or minus.”
The homes will range from $250,000-$300,000, which is lower than the median price for a single-family home in March.
