2023-10-06 13:02:35
Location: 1717 Freeway Court NE
Description: Four years after the longtime fish house closed its Market Street location, a new business is going in at the old Newport Seafood Grill in north Salem.
Half of the building and the adjoining parking lot will be turned into a used car dealership. A restaurant is planned for the other half of the building.
Newport Seafood Grill closed in 2019 after 22 years in Salem, shortly after the business’s parent company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
The building remained vacant for years, sometimes becoming a dumping ground and overnight camping spot.
In early 2023, architect Ronald Ped filed an application and site plan review on behalf of Hawthorne Parking Lot LCC and Hawthorne Land Investment LLC to transform part of the empty building into a car sales lot while retaining the kitchen and portion of the former eatery for a new, smaller restaurant. The type of restaurant was not specified.
“The former restaurant is unlikely to be reused as a restaurant due to its size,” Ped said in a written response In city documents about the development. “Perhaps development patterns have changed in the last 25 years to the point, certainly post-COVID. The amount of redevelopment in the past few years has fallen off sharply.”
He said due to the proximity to Interstate 5, major roads and other car sales businesses, the spot on the northeast corner of Hawthorne and Market Street is the perfect spot for the redevelopment.
“There is no place in Salem more compatible with used car sales,” he said in the response to the city, adding that the neighborhood had been adversely impacted by having the building vacant for four years. “Our proposal will strengthen the fabric of the neighborhood.”
The city approved the site plan for the sales lot and restaurant in April under the conditions that wrought or cast iron fencing be put up along Market Street around the business and lot be only open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Plans submitted to the city list the business name as Credit Yes Auto.
Agility Robotics to open world’s ‘first factory for humanoid robots’ in Salem
What’s that being built on Market Street near Swegle Elementary in east Salem?
What’s that restaurant going in on Commercial Street in South Salem?
Source: City of Salem
Is there something under construction you’d like to tell us about or find out more about? Contact reporter Whitney Woodworth at [email protected]
1696600132
#Whats #Newport #Seafood #Grill #north #Salem