June 24, 2024 4:00 a.m.
In the KQEN Business Spotlight:
Two downtown Roseburg properties that have been vacant for decades have a new owner.
The Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians has confirmed that it recently purchased the former Rite Aid building on Southeast Jackson Street and the adjacent vacant lot on Southeast Rose Street that housed a Safeway store for decades.
Communications and Marketing Director Lindsay Campman told News Radio 93-9 FM and 1240 KQEN, “The Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians is excited about investing in the future of Downtown Roseburg”.
Documents from the Douglas County Assessor’s Office list the sale price for the combined transaction at $1.1 million. The sale date is listed as May 29th. Both properties had been owned by a group of family members in California for nearly 40 years.
The Rite Aid building is on just over 1.1 acres of land and was constructed in 1963. It was originally a Payless Drug Store until its parent company was purchased by Rite Aid in 1996. The store name was changed later. Rite Aid moved to a new building two blocks away on Southeast Stephens Street in 2005, leaving the original location vacant for nearly twenty years. The newer store closed in June of 2023 only weeks before Rite Aid filed for bankruptcy protection and announced a plan to shutter hundreds of locations.
In March of 2023 Bernie Woodward of Elk Island Trading Group LLC attempted to purchase the Rite Aid building, but that transaction ultimately did not go through.
The downtown Safeway store sat on just over 1.4 acres and was built in the 1960’s. That property had housed a junior high school, which was destroyed in the downtown Roseburg blast of 1959. It closed in 2003 after a new location was constructed two miles to the north on Northeast Stephens Street. The building was demolished in 2019 after being considered an eyesore by many for years.
The Cow Creek Tribe owns a number of other downtown properties including the nearby Umpqua Business Center on Southeast Washington Avenue, and two properties on Southeast Spruce Street – a food truck lot and a currently vacant commercial building.
What the future will be for the former Rite Aid and Safeway properties is not yet known. Campman’s brief statement on behalf of the Tribe said, “We appreciate the community’s interest and will share more details as our plans develop”.