An iconic piece of a century-old cannery in Salem is no more.
Over the weekend, the bridge came down at the former Truitt Bros. cannery on Northeast Front Street. The bridge was added to the property in the late 1970s.
It’s a visible symbol of the transformation getting underway in the industrial area north of downtown.
A large redevelopment project is planned for the cannery site. Aptly dubbed “The Cannery,” the complex will be turned into a riverfront hub with 382 apartments, a brewery, a food hall and other retail and entertainment. Some of the existing cannery buildings will be re-used as part of the project.
“It was definitely bittersweet,” said Jordan Truitt, the broker representing the sellers of the site. Though his family owns the cannery, he doesn’t have a personal stake in the building beyond facilitating the sale.
The cannery processed vegetables until its closure in 2019. It sits on a 13-acre site which will anchor a larger transformation of the neighborhood.
“I hope the visual sight of this reignites interest in the development, in a positive redevelopment of what is a functionally obsolete property,” Truitt said.
Developer Trent Michels is under contract to buy the property and announced plans for the site last spring.
The site is still waiting on city approval for a land use plan. A city hearing on plans for The Cannery is expected Sept. 25.
City officials hope the cannery project will serve as a catalyst for a larger revitalization of the area. Kristin Retherford, the city’s community planning and development director, is working on plans to designate the neighborhood as an urban renewal area, which would allow building projects access to additional grants. City councilors approved beginning the process in March.
The city received a $2.7 million federal grant earlier this year for traffic and transportation planning along Front Street. That’s intended to help address the safety issues posed by the street, which has a rail line running through its center, no lane markings, few sidewalks, no bike lanes and no separation between train tracks and vehicle traffic.
Truitt said the developer would likely have updated plans to share for The Cannery development following city approval of a land use plan.
Contact reporter Rachel Alexander: [email protected] or 503-575-1241.
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Rachel Alexander is Salem Reporter’s managing editor. She joined Salem Reporter when it was founded in 2018 and covers city news, education, nonprofits and a little bit of everything else. She’s been a journalist in Oregon and Washington for a decade. Outside of work, she’s a skater and board member with Salem’s Cherry City Roller Derby and can often be found with her nose buried in a book.
