The Bend Bulletin recently broke news that we’ve been sitting on for a while… but now that the secret is out, I guess we’re ready to share with everyone! After 30-plus years of doing business in downtown Bend, DVA Advertising & Public Relations will be moving its offices to the Bend Central District.

DVA plans a two-story building on 221 NE Hawthorne Ave., said Justin Yax, partner/public relations director for DVA Advertising & Public Relations. A fire in late July at the building on the corner of Greenwood Avenue and Hill Street pushed the deadline up a bit to move to the new location in the heart of the central business district.

The new location will be completed by March, Yax said.

“Our decision to build in the central district was mostly related to the city and the community vision for that space,” Yax said. “We were told that the city was using the Pearl District in Portland as the model.

“That was appealing to us.”

The Bend Central District — an area roughly bounded by Fourth Street, the Bend Parkway, Revere Avenue and the Third Street underpass — is one of the four opportunity areas that were recently included in the new Urban Renewal/Tax Increment Financing area.

“Our vision is this is an opportunity for the Third Street commercial strip to transition to a mixed use area,” said Allison Platt, Bend Core Area project manager. “The intent is for higher density, intense land use, higher buildings that mirrors the downtown.”

That means the area will embrace taller buildings, rather than sprawled out one-story buildings, and a mixture of business and residential uses.

DVA is not the first businesses to build in the area. Other businesses including Sunlight Solar Energy and Brooks Resources Corp. have relocated to the central district.

“The goal is for the core to house more of our residential needs,” Platt said. “We want to put more people in walkable and bike-able areas of the city. We’ve been focusing on this for the past six years.

“This area will gradually transition to an urban feel and be a place where people can live, work, play in the center of the city. There’s a lot of activity in the area.”

Brooks Resources is considering building a 130-unit housing development with mixed use in the area, Platt said.

By creating a special district, the city can stimulate development by offering tax increment financing through its urban renewal plan.

“We’re trying to be intentional about development,” Platt said. “This is different than tax incentives. It subsidizes companies by refunding or diverting a portion of their taxes to help finance development in an area.”

The Bend Central District has the potential to be a hotbed of creative and progressive thinking that fits with the vision of DVA, Yax said.

“Advertising agencies tend to be a creative and progressive type of environment that fit the vision of the area,” he said. “There’s a lot of momentum around the Bend Central District.”