City sells former Multnomah building

After nearly two years on the market, the “Multnomah Building” owned by the City of Sisters has sold for $500,000.

This sale comes at a time when City Manager Eileen Stein is configuring the city’s budget to finance the new city hall. The proceeds of the Multnomah Building sale, approximately $460,000, according to Stein, will be used to fund part of the construction of the city’s new facility.

The building was the former home of Multnomah Publishers, who have moved to a facility in the Sisters Industrial Park.

On Thursday, May 19 the city council voted 3-1 to sell the building to Frank and Kathy Deggendorfer of Sisters. Sharlene Weed dissented, and Brad Boyd was not present to vote.

Weed presented a written statement for the council record on why she chose to dissent.

“In the Sisters market, how can the property have lost value in over seven years?” wrote Weed.

The original listing price was $950,000 and in 1998 the property was assessed at $680,000.

She also asserted that the city does not have an urgent need for the money.

Stein explained the city council’s rationale.

“The majority of the council felt the building has been on the market for a long time,” she said. “The price has been lowered over time. As the offers were not coming in, they were concerned that the original appraisal of the building might have been too high.”

With the Multnomah Building proceeds, the funding strategy for the new city hall will use $400,000 from the urban renewal fund; $146,000 of cash carry forward from the city hall remodel fund; the $460,000 from the building sale; $200,000 in transfers from utility funds; and $300,000 from the reserve fund.

According to Stein, “This all gets me to about $1.5 million already. So the gap is about $500,000 to $600,000 right now. But, I’m still looking for pennies and nickels in the budget.”

She noted that, “A 30-year loan, for $600,000 at about 4 percent is about $34,000 a year in debt service — that’s affordable. Now for the first time I have a little more certainty around how I can put the revenue pieces together for the new city hall.”

Frank Deggendorfer said that he and Kathy are considering splitting the building into sections.

One section would be commercial office space and another would house an art-based business center.

Deggendorfer also said that there is an opportunity to include some arts education programs at any age level.