Shopping center has new owner

The owner of The Huckleberry Bush coffee kiosk, Tiffany Adrian, won approval for a new site before the Sisters planning commission Thursday night. The new site will be at the north end of the Three Wind Shopping Center, with two lanes of access just off the north end of the parking lot.

Until recently, the coffee kiosk - under a variety of owners - has been located just north of the now-defunct Crossroads Shell gas station. The current owner, a local resident, bought the kiosk in March.

The relocation coincides with the sale of Three Wind Shopping Center to Dickerhoof Properties of Corvallis. Darren Dickerhoof addressed the commission in support of Huckleberry's request. He indicated that his company had been interested in purchasing the center for the last six years, and had completed the purchase of the property from long-time owner Helmut Junge over the past several weeks.

The Dickerhoof website announcement of the purchase indicates that a "new co-anchor will be added in the spring of 2015 along with new facades making the center appear new."

Darren Dickerhoof indicated that he was pleased with the look of Bi-Mart and Takoda's, but expected significant renovation of the building now housing the Dollar Store and Sisters Electronics.

Representing the owners of the one-acre Shell station lot between Three Wind Shopping Center and McKinney Butte Road, local developer Steve McGhehey indicated that the traditional and often-maligned west entrance to Three Wind center will be closed permanently.

At the meeting, Dickerhoof and McGhehey began negotiations on what is expected to be a new west entrance to the center off McKinney Butte Road. The city will require that the entrance lines up with the eastern exit from the Outlaw Station (Ray's) shopping center, North Arrowleaf Trail.

McGhehey indicated that the owners have not yet agreed on what they would like to develop on their one-acre site, but they are working with ODOT to make full allowances for the proposed roundabout at McKinney Butte and Highway 20.

Dickerhoof Properties, a 2012 Corvallis Chamber of Commerce Business of the Year, was described by an article in DJC, an Oregon construction newsletter, this way: "Darren Dickerhoof and his father, Gene, and his brother, Matt, have found a niche over the last decade buying past-their-prime shopping outlets and vacant big-box stores and then converting them into smaller, modern retail spaces."

Relocated from Carmel, California, the Dickerhoofs established their business in Corvallis 20 years ago, just after both sons graduated from Oregon State University with degrees in construction engineering management. The company now owns more than 19 small-to-midsize retail centers, 17 of them in Oregon.