Gazette-Times reporter

After months of inactivity, site preparation has begun on a 90,000-square-foot shopping center at Northwest Ninth Street and Garfield Avenue.

Grading, excavation and other preparatory activity got under way this week at the site, which formerly housed the Corvallis Inn and the Laidlaw Transit bus barn. Demolition was completed this spring, but the property had since sat idle behind a construction fence.

Not anymore.

"We have our site work permits," said Craig Ramey, a senior vice president with developer Regency Centers. "We are starting full speed now."

Ramey said the project, dubbed

Corvallis Market Center, should be "substantially complete" by the end of the year.

"Most of the tenants will open in March," he said.

Off-price clothing retailer TJ Maxx will anchor the main line of six shops across the back of the 6.5-acre site, along with a Michaels craft and hobby supply store and a Famous Footwear outlet.

Two smaller outparcels will be developed on the property's Ninth Street frontage, including a single-tenant structure with a drive-through window and an 11,600-square-foot multitenant building that could house five or six retail, restaurant or service businesses.

Ramey said Regency is close to signing several more tenants but declined to name names until the lease agreements are final.

A few blocks to the north, the oft-delayed CCC Plaza development could also start site work soon.

"We're close," said Craig Clark, the California developer who's been trying to get the project at Ninth Street and Spruce Avenue off the ground for years only to see potential tenants such as Michaels Stores and Applebee's Neighborhood Grill & Bar opt for other sites nearby.

"We're shooting to start by the end of summer," Clark said. "We have our grading permit and various other permits we need to get started."

What he doesn't have yet - but hopes to have soon - is the critical mass of committed tenants he needs to begin construction at his 9-acre Ninth Street site.

"I need to be at 50 percent (occupancy commitments) before I pull the trigger on the financing," Clark said. "Right now I'm at about 45 percent. All I need is one more tenant."

At the moment, Clark said, he has letters of intent from three restaurants and several retail tenants for his 80,000-square-foot project, though he declined to name them until a final deal is in place.

One reason for his reluctance: Competition from other developers.

Since he bought the CCC Plaza property several years ago, Clark has seen at least two solid prospects walk away from signing with him in favor of alternate locations in Corvallis.

Michaels, of course, is poised to open its first Corvallis outlet in the Corvallis Market Center, and the city's first Applebee's is under construction a few blocks east, behind Carmike Cinemas.

Meanwhile, a third new shopping center on Ninth Street is complete but remains empty.

Fremont Place, a 7,500-square-foot development adjacent to Carl's Jr. at Northwest Ninth and Fremont Avenue, was finished around the end of June. The building is owned by a Portland development partnership and could house anywhere from one to four retail or office tenants.

Gary Pond of Commercial Associates, the leasing agent for the property (as well as CCC Plaza), said he's talked to a few prospects but had no firm commitments so far. But he said the area is becoming an increasingly attractive location for regional and national retailers and he anticipates no trouble filling Fremont Place.

"There aren't many sites left on Ninth Street," Pond noted.

Bennett Hall can be reached at 758-9529 or bennett.hall@lee.net.