Keizer is getting free help to sell “orphan” properties owned by the city for years after the Keizer City Council recently approved an unusual arrangement.
City Manager Adam Brown proposed bringing in Eric Meurer, longtime Keizer resident and a developer, as an unpaid consultant.
“I would love to see this happen,” Brown told councilors at their Feb. 18 meeting. He said Meurer has given him advice the past couple of years and “he knows so many of the developers in the community.”
Under that agreement approved by the council, Meurer would be considered a volunteer economic development adviser. He would “help city staff recruit development prospects and property buyers,” “facilitate the development or sale of city owned properties” and “meet with potential companies interested in relocating to Keizer and existing companies interested in expansion.”
The agreement requires Meurer to keep confidential certain information he gets from the city and to disclose potential conflicts. Brown said in his report to the council that the volunteer adviser would not have any pecuniary financial interest connected to any deals negotiated through him.”
Meurer said his first task to help Brown is to help market the city-owned properties.
“I have some knowledge of real estate activities and the guys at City Hall should be selling properties that the city has accumulated,” Meurer said in an interview. “They don’t have somebody in house that’s versed in that sort of thing.”
Brown said he would rely on Meurer to help with two key city properties that the city has never marketed.
He said the city owns land on the triangle across from Keizer Station bounded by Northeast Lockhaven Drive, McLeod Lane and Chemawa Road. He said the city also owns about 20 acres on the north side of Keizer Station, north and west of Volcanoes Stadium.
The city recently received letters of intent to buy city-owned land on Lockhaven Drive on the east and west sides of Keizer Station Boulevard.
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