(Photo above: L-R Terri Lynn Faith, Cheryl Curley and Carla Luderman at the Family Homestead settled by their parents in the early 1960s | Courtesy of Gibson Realty, Inc.)
For years as one drove towards 15th Street on Reed Market Road, the sight of longhorn cattle in the irrigated field across the street from old Sweeney’s Workensport reminded the driver of Bend’s rural roots. The kids who moved there in the 1960s and lived in the century-old home on the 12.85 acres would ride their horses down Ninth Street to attend class at Bend Senior High.
Howard Luderman, the family patriarch who lived on the rolling property with a view of Mt. Bachelor, passed away not long ago after nearly 55 years of working the land and along with him went the area’s rural character.
Now it is one of the largest landholdings left in Bend surrounded by commercial development to the north, industrial to the west, residential to the south and east and a roundabout not far from the Bend Senior Center and the Larkspur Trail.
There are other publicized large acreage/parcels of land within the UGB, but the Luderman family parcel has been waiting in the wings as one of the largest, unpublicized parcels of presently zoned residential and has been through City pre-application meetings and a sewer analysis to consider zoning to residential medium/residential high density lots remaining. The acreage could serve up to 300 units or 90 single-family homes.
Howard’s daughter, Carla Luderman explains, “Dad bought this property in 1961 and was here until he passed away. He would not sell when people would make an offer because he always told people he bought the property to die on and sure enough mom and dad both passed away in this 100-year-old house.
“Since the only source of heat we had in the house when we were growing up was a wood stove, we would make family outings to go cut wood. We all had our chores, I would mark the lengths on the logs , Dad would cut and we all hauled it to the truck, stack it and then bring it back home. Dad was an awesome guy , very people friendly, everybody loved him. He drove truck for Consolidated Freightways, Trans Western Express and Viking Freight.”
Though two large legal lots of record remaining in the Luderman Family LLC are up for sale and its historic home and barns will eventually be dismantled, the remaining family’s dream is to create a living legacy to their father’s memory and his pioneering efforts as one of Bend’s first settlers by revitalizing the future of Bend’s central/southeast side.
One condition of its future sale will be to name the development as a fitting memorial to him — Luderman Landing –as one housing destination between one of Bend’s main thoroughfares, mountain range and railroad. The family’s hope is to build a common ground and be a positive solution to the scarce rentals and lack of affordable housing.
Working behind the scenes with their architect, Jim Landin of BLRB Architects, their realtors and the City of Bend through pre-application meetings, the family has searched out the type of zoning that would best serve the community’s needs. The biggest challenge it seems is to match the style of development projects by comparing the value of raw land, existing buildings, road and utilities infrastructures with rising construction costs.
A zoning change from its single-family residential status to a higher density impacts whether or not the sale price of their land will pencil out for all parties involved – as development costs before even building one single-family structure range from $40,000 to $60,000 per lot due to exorbitant system development charges (SDCs) and construction permits. So, multi-family developments become much more feasible for a builder or developer to recoup their costs and etch out a profit.
In considering any would-be offers for their property and the cost of developing raw land the family has realized their sentimental attachment must be adjusted to make the project worthwhile to all parties for the risks and time taken to either develop the property in phases or to sell one parcel at a time to a fitting partner for its $4 million dollar asking price.
“He was the center of our family. So it makes sense to us that we can develop a project where everyone in this area can live, play and work and have services they can walk or bike to,” said Cheryl Curley (Luderman).
“Howard was a character, so we want the family’s LLC to do something with character and purpose like him, “said Rick Curley. “Bend is becoming congested as compared to what we have always known, so our goal is to work with a development that will combine a neighborhood center to cut out the driving and make better use of proximity to the Bend Senior Center, trails in the southeast and from the southwest that hook up to the trail system of the westside along with the college and downtown.”
Why not make the best use of an already highly trafficked area to better serve the community of Bend from one of its original settlers?
So many people are looking for a place to live and work that is relatively close to work whether they live in Central Oregon. It makes sense to build upon the natural resources and strengths of the neighboring businesses and centralized transportation system to make it easy and convenient for people to work nearby and get to school, shops, downtown and to cut down on traffic. It’s so important to keep our parks and trails alluring places to be and build up the connections throughout Bend from the east and westside.
Ginny Kansas-Meszaros, PC
Principal Broker, Certified Residential Specialist (CRS) , Accredited Buyer Representative (ABR)
Gibson Realty
541-977-2710
ginny.m.kansas@gmail.com
www.ginnyk.com
