Hazel Dell’s retail renaissance continues

“It’s where the tenants want to be and they want to be where they can be seen,” said Sherri Kennedy, project manager for MAJ Development, the Vancouver-based developer of an approximately two-acre site along Highway 99, just south of the planned Sports Authority store on the opposite side of Interstate 5..

The MAJ Development already includes a Panera Bread that opened in December and a Taco Bell that opened in April. Pacific Dental will start making its improvements to a completed 5,100 square-foot building this summer or late fall, with plans of opening by the end of the year, Kennedy said.

MAJ is also in talks to fill the remaining 3,625 square-foot retail pad on the site but Kennedy would not reveal who the potential tenant could be.

“It’s our goal to have someone up and running for business in 2015,” she said. “We are very excited to have been a part of the revitalization of the Highway 99 and Hazel Dell area.”

The MAJ projects, located on the old Steakburger restaurant site, among several projects that make up a two-block makeover on Highway 99 that also includes rebuilding the McDonald’s restaurant, a new Dutch Bros. Coffee kiosk and replacement of a Salvation Army store with a Fred Meyer fueling station.

The Dutch Bros kiosk is holding its grand opening today, making it the Grants Pass, Ore.-based company’s fifth Vancouver location, with a sixth set to open later this month. The company will offer 16-ounce drinks for $1 at the new location during its grand opening from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m., with proceeds benefiting the Sensory Camp of Vancouver, which makes it possible for children with special needs to attend summer camp.

Dutch Bros. Vancouver is locally owned and operated by husband and wife team Kenny and Heidi Stromer.

This will be their fourth Vancouver stand. This new location at 7300 N.E. Highway 99 will be open from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays and from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. The other two Vancouver coffee stands, one to open later this month at 18911 S.E. Mill Plain Boulevard, are owned by franchisee Jessica Chudek, spokeswoman Jennifer Wheatley said.

Also coming to the area is a new Fred Meyer fueling station. The old Salvation Army building is to be demolished to make way for the fueling station.

“Very tentatively, we hope that we can demolish the Salvation Army building and break ground on our fuel center by the end of July, and if all goes well, we’d be open in the late fall, maybe early November,” said Melinda Merrill, Portland-based community affairs manager for Fred Meyer and QFC Stores.

The approximately $3 million fuel center will have room for 18 cars to fuel at the same time and will add about eight jobs to the store, Merrill said.

“We’re doing it partly because the area continues to grow, but mainly because we look for opportunities to build fuel centers at or near as many stores as we can,” Merrill said.

At the end of July, Fred Meyer’s 100th fueling center will open at the retailer’s Wood Village, Ore. store.

“We do it because our customer responds incredibly positively about it,” she said. “With the fuel reward program we have, the convenient locations, it’s a program we’ve focused on growing over the past several years because our customers have told us they truly want it.”