More new and growing businesses in Bend

The population is still growing in Bend, and so are new and existing businesses around town.

Construction is still underway for a new shopping center at Robal Road and Highway 97, but a few stores are close to opening.

Ulta Beauty will be the first store to open up in the next couple of weeks, to be followed by others such as Black Rock Coffee, BedMart and later this year, Chick-fil-A and Cracker Barrel.

Gary North, vice president of R & H Construction, which oversees the project, said Tuesday the company is seeing more and more growth in Bend and across Central Oregon.

North said the area is seeing a bit of a business boom, compared to the way things were just five to 10 years ago.

“Kind of turned 180 degrees from where it had been previously,” North said. “And you know, the university opening, we’re just seeing a lot of tech movement in town and industrial, and it’s just kind of across the board. There’s a lot of activity and a lot of people wanting to move to Central Oregon.”

For R & H Construction, the job of building space for retailers is something they hope will last for the foreseeable future.

And while food truck pods might not be a new thing, a new location for food trucks here in Bend is in the works.

The proposed site is near Costco, off Purcell Boulevard, and the owners plan to put in a common area where people can sit and order beverages, along with about five spaces for food carts.

City of Bend Senior Planner Heidi Kennedy said the food truck model has seen success in the past, and it really embraces the type of lifestyle that Bend has to offer.

“Food carts and food pods are a really popular thing now, everywhere,” she said. “And combining it with outdoor recreational activities, with the open areas — the lawn areas, that seems to be a really popular use for people visiting and living in Bend.”

The land use permit is still pending, but according to Kennedy, the city didn’t receive any comments from the public about the project.

She said if all goes well with permitting from this point forward, the food trucks could be up and running by summer.

Eager Law Firm, which deals with business law, conducted a survey based on business licenses to see how many new businesses popped up over the past year.

It found that per capita, Bend saw more new business growth in 2017, compared to other Oregon cities.

Jeff Eager, a former Bend councilor and mayor, said Bend is really an entrepreneurial city, and many people have embraced that.

He said Central Oregon remains a desirable place to live, and that has led to more significant growth in the past year.

“A lot of people move here without a really strong job available to them at that time,” Eager said. “And they figure out that the best way to make a go here is to start their own business.”

Eager said small businesses are what built Central Oregon, and they continue to do so.

He said some barriers that could lead to a decline in growth are a lack of retail space and low unemployment numbers, which could lead to having fewer people out looking for a job.

Eager added that, right now, things are really good and businesses are growing at a rapid rate — but at some point, things will have to slow down.