County's OMI purchase promises big dividends

The lead headline on last Friday’s front page, “County to buy OMI campus,” serves to answer an editorial call we’ve been sounding for more than 20 years now. If we had to reduce our reaction to a single word, “Hallelujah!” would be a good choice.

As we noted in a turn-of-the-century editorial, back when the city was moving to develop expanded downtown quarters for police and administrative functions, “The county, too, feels a space squeeze. The courts need more room, and health and human resources programs are scattered.”

We concluded, “Now is the time for both city and county to get cost-effective, efficient facilities in place to handle coming decades of growth.”

Instead, the county continued spilling ever further into a crucial repository of relatively affordable housing stock in a historic, close-in neighborhood. In the process, it saddled itself with a scattered, inefficient, high-maintenance hodge-podge of aging buildings that were short on typical office amenities, including parking.

Eventually, the county joined us in embracing the need to consolidate the bulk of its operations in modern downtown office space. It hired a consultant who computed the need at about 110,000-square-feet in a report released in the spring of 2022.

That much office space built from the ground up on valuable downtown real estate would, of course, carry a daunting price tag, particularly if you factor in the need for additional parking. So the county began casting about for workable alternatives.

It concluded the process last week by negotiating purchase of a pair of downtown Oregon Mutual Insurance office buildings, and the expanse of high-value parking that comes with them, for $19.2 million. That’s such a bargain, the county was able to finance the acquisition out of capital reserves, without having to submit a bond issue to wary voters.

Commissioner Lindsay Berschauer summed it up this way, “We’re doing all of this funding internally with reserves and long-term competitive financing, which is pretty dang impressive.” Indeed it is.

The larger, newer structure offers 62,000 square feet on three floors all by itself, going a long way toward meeting county needs on its own. The older, smaller building rounds out the package nicely, though it will require more retrofitting.

County Administrator Ken Huffer said the commissioner’s offices and hearing room will go into the new space, along with IT, finance, human resources, economic development and veterans’ services; the clerk’s and treasurer’s offices; and the Health and Human Services Department’s administrative function. He said the sheriff’s office and community corrections operation might eventually be moved into the smaller building as well.

The move will enable to county to sell up to eight existing properties, helping replenish its coffers. The county plans to lease some third-floor space back to OMI for five years, generating an additional $1.2 million.

McMinnville’s historic downtown core has been gradually expanding south onto First and Second streets and north onto Fourth and Fifth streets. The northward expansion is particularly important as it connects downtown with the city’s revitalized Granary and Alpine districts, and the former RB Rubber site the city is in the process of redeveloping.

The acquisition promises to free up housing stock the city needs. It also figures to make the neighborhood more livable by freeing it from mixed-use intrusion and county-associated traffic and parking congestion.

Finally, it serves Oregon Mutual, which was able to greatly reduce its office needs when much of its workforce began operating from home during the pandemic.

Huffer called it “a huge game-changer as far as the county goes.” We would expand that to also include the city, company and community.

It’s rare when a transaction involving so many interested parties and moving parts works out so well for all concerned. But that certainly seems to be the case here.

Kudos to the county for recognizing the opportunity and moving to capitalize on it.