Published: January 14, 2006
By YVETTE SAARINEN
Of the News-Register
Third Street's personal cheering section, the McMinnville Downtown Association, is celebrating its 20th anniversary.
Funded by a square footage assessment on property owners within an Economic Improvement District, plus dues from member businesses and proceeds from events, MDA's mission from the start has been to promote the economic health and development of downtown McMinnville.
Patti Webb is logging her 12th year as MDA manager. She is only the second person to hold that position, the first being Malcolm Johnstone, who maintained the helm the first eight years.
MDA was the brainchild of a group of business people Webb calls "downtown heroes." Their collective mission was to save the downtown, which then had a 20 percent vacancy rate that made it look like a ghost town.
A small group of people selected the first board, which included Steve Macy, Jeb Bladine, Roger Heller, Marilyn Dell Worrix, Walt Gowell, Candy Gormley, Julie Anderson, Malcolm Mathes, Rocky Wade, Wally Wright and John Roodhouse. The board, organized in early 1986, drew on the expertise of the National Main Street Program and the Oregon Downtown Development Association.
Within just four months, they had persuaded the McMinnville City Council to create an EID. That funded a full-time manager, who now has a part-time assistant, Cindy Fusek.
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"Many of us had grown up in the downtown area and remembered what it was like in the '50s," said Steve Macy, fourth-generation partner with his brother, Scott, in Macy & Son Funeral Directors. "It was a great group of people.
"We developed a plan and were off. There was only one direction, and that was forward. I'm honored to have played a small part in once again making the downtown the heart of the community."
Roger Heller, who had been chairman of the Chamber of Commerce downtown committee, was elected the association's first president.
The MDA board includes representatives of property owners, business owners, professional organizations, and the associate or individual members. The association maintains five permanent committees: design and beautification, economic improvement, marketing, organization and promotions.
Dues and income from downtown promotions and sponsorships feeds the promotions fund. The committee uses the money to support common promotional activities like the Brown Bag Concerts, McMinnville Farmers Market, open house events, the annual walking tour of downtown and holiday promotions.
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MDA is housed in the historic Cozine House at 105 N.E. Third St.
First Federal contributed the property to the city, and the city deeded it to MDA in 1991. That followed a successful fundraising campaign to restore the 1892 Queen Anne style residence, once home to Samuel and Mahala Cozine. Rent from other tenants covers upkeep.
The city funded work to create the Downtown Historic District for listing on the National Register of Historic Places.
Twenty years later, the vacancy rate is running about 5 percent. At times, there have been no vacancies downtown at all.
MDA and its partners have managed to maintain McMinnville's downtown core as a vital community commercial district despite competition from big box stores and other mall-oriented businesses at both ends of town. And that has been a boon to property owners.
The historic Odd Fellows building at the corner of Third and Ford streets was valued at just $58,000 in 1992. Three years later it sold for $1.5 million. It is now on the market for $2.5 million.
Webb said the association has been involved in facilitating public/private partnerships resulting in new holiday lights, a downtown walking map, a visitor's guide and a unified approach to dealing with such concerns as streetscape infrastructure and public safety.
"For all MDA members, the organization can be a voice for their concerns in dealing with governmental institutions, such as the city or the state, and in representing downtown core interests in the interaction of various constituencies in the greater community," she said.
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Along the way, the association and some of its individual members have been recognized by local and state associations for outstanding rehabilitation, promotion and marketing. Webb was named Outstanding Main Street Manager by ODDA and given a special chamber award for service to the community in 1998.
Readers voted downtown the Best Place to Take Visitors in the News-Register's annual Best of Mac contest in 2001. When the city recently did a survey of what residents liked best about the community, its historic downtown rated near the top.
Nestled between two of Oregon's biggest tourist attractions, the Spirit Mountain Casino and Evergreen Aviation Museum, the downtown has become a destination of its own. Webb cited the frequent sight of tour buses parked along city streets as a sign of that.
The wine industry has helped play a part in that. With 42 wineries located within its corporate limits, including a concentration just outside the downtown core, McMinnville is increasingly becoming the industry's hub.
So has the $3.5 million renovation of Hotel Oregon by the McMenamin brothers. The work transformed a towering eyesore into a magnet for redevelopment, particularly tourist-oriented redevelopment.
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Repeatedly, reports had highlighted the importance of a vibrant, healthy core area, and the damage done when a community allows that core area to deteriorate.
A 1968 study, "Planning for the Central Area of McMinnville," conducted by the University of Oregon's Bureau of Governmental Research and Service, warned residents there was nothing special about their downtown to draw traffic.
In 1972, the Rural/Urban Design Assistance Team of the American Institute of Architects said, "We believe that the revitalization of the downtown core of McMinnville is of utmost importance and should become top priority by the citizenry. This area must be saved, for without it, McMinnville could become a plastic city located anywhere in the country and would have no real meaning for its inhabitants."
RUDAT proposed a vehicle-free pedestrian mall along Third Street and a greenway between Baker and Adams. But those ideas were considered too radical, disruptive and expensive.
In 1976, Mayor Norm Scott created the Downtown Committee on Redevelopment, headed by Bill Rutherford. He was joined by Ernie Beckett, Al Beeler, Phil Bladine, Ish Duckett, Paul Durbin, Gale Johnson, Glen Macy, Lee Perry, Jim Stanard, Larry Wildman and Wally Wright.
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The committee discarded initial proposals for a downtown mall in favor of more manageable beautification efforts. Under its guidance, new street lights were installed, phone and electric cables were moved underground, sidewalks were rounded off at the ends of blocks, mid-block kiosks were built for pedestrians, trees were planted and storm drainage was improved.
In spite of written support in the city's Comprehensive Plan in 1981, though, the committee ultimately disbanded. And the downtown continued to deteriorate as a commercial marketplace, despite the physical improvements.
The vacancy rate along Third Street was nearing 20 percent when the McMinnville Downtown Association was created to kick-start a sweeping revitalization.
Macy said the infrastructure improvement shepherded through by the Committee on Redevelopment represented an invaluable first step, however. He said it demonstrated a synergism among city government, the business community and the larger community that continues today.
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