Fred Meyer staying the path on second Bend store

One of the Northwest’s biggest grocers is looking to grow in Bend, but it’s far from a done deal.

City infrastructure issues have slowed Fred Meyer’s plans to open a store in the northern part of Bend. But on Thursday night, representatives shared their visions of the new store with residents of the Boyd Acres neighborhood.

“We have a little ways to go, but this is a big step,” said Fred Meyer spokeswoman Melinda Merrill. “We want to come up with a development that pleases them.”

While residents may be pleased, they’ll also have to be patient. The city has acknowledged sewer capacity issues in the northern part of town, a fix that will run up the price of development by tens of millions.

“It sounds like the city of Bend has quite the sewer dilemma,” said Christine Smith, an architect and planner with Mackenzie Architecture. “We’ve been working with the city for the past six to nine months, and we’re still working through those issues.”

“The sewage problem in North Bend is not something that one development is going to be able to solve,” Smith added. “We’ve come to terms that a solution will be found, but a solution is not yet complete.”

Along with sanitation issues are traffic challenges. The clogged intersection of Highway 97 and Cooley Roadhas brought past developments such as a controversial proposed Walmart to a halt before ground could be broken.

Mackenzie Architecture plans to study Cooley Road improvements, but can’t proceed until the Oregon Department of Transportation finishes a study of its own. ODOT officials estimate they’ll wrap that up in the next 90 days.

“We’re committed to this project. We’ve been working on it for a long time,” Smith said. “We’re not afraid to stick to the long haul.”

Despite the issues, project developers are hopeful they can break ground in 2017. Fred Meyer representatives are promising a much-updated building from their sister store in Southeast Bend, built over 20 years ago.

“We look forward to building a store that the Bend community has not seen before,” Merrill said. “We do a much better job (now) of building stores that look better, feel better and fit into the community better.”

But until sewer and road capacity problems on the north end of the city are resolved, fitting in might prove to be the biggest challenge facing the proposed supermarket.