This is 2150 Santiam Hwy. SE, the site of a planned “Claw Factory” arcade and two food trucks, seen Tuesday evening, July 14, 2026.
What’s going on, someone asked me, at 2150 Southeast Santiam Highway, a longtime former retail location in Albany? The building is being turned into a game arcade, maybe with a couple of food trucks outside.
For years this was the location of Knecht’s Auto Parts. The company closed the store and all its other Oregon outlets in May 2023.
For a while since then, the space was occupied by a furniture store, but it didn’t last.
Last February, KMB Investments LLC of Salem bought the half-acre property for $949,000, according to the online records of the Linn County assessor. The company, owned by longtime Salem residents Kirk and Jenifer Bachelder, operates a Claw Factory game arcade in Salem.
According to what I can see on its Facebook page, the arcade operates machines where players can try to pick up prizes with mechanical claws.
In Albany, the company has applied for approval of a Claw Factory site plan that calls for two “mobile food units” to be placed in the parking lot, one at each end of the building.
The Albany Planning Division posted an online notice of the application on July 1. It said property owners within 300 feet were notified and invited to submit any comments by today, July 15.
Approval of the mobile food units is up to the city staff. (hh)
Is this the building next to the big, well-landscaped, not-the-usual-denomination-in-this-area church auditorium on one side and The Sizzler Restaurant on the other? There’s no parking to speak of. How could that piece of land accommodate a “game” thing that scads of young people would frequent plus a couple of food trucks?
I have the exact same feeling. It has the potential to be a nightmare.
Gee Epony… worse case scenario they park behind the building directly behind it that has multiple parking spots???
So, you say gamers are going to park in the strip mall behind proposed “Claw Factory” and walk around the east end of The Sizzler to get to the Claw Factory arcade thingy?
How do you know Sizzlers patrons won’t park in the CF lot? They have at least 1 “civic group” that meets for lunch.
I’d think the clientele will be mostly under driving age, so a non issue.
I think the clientele age will top off at about 23 or 24. The male brain is not fully developed until about age 25…according to medical science.
There is barely any parking in that location. With 2 food trucks at each end that will take up some parking as well. I can imagine an arcade could attract a decent amount of attention. That sounds like it has potential to be a nightmare.
I’m sure that Sizzler would welcome 2 food trucks..NOT…as for parking the Claws people will park in the Bi-mart lot anyway….Can’t wait for all the paper garbage all over the highway plus traffic in & out….oh my…Rumor is Claws has FLOCK camera’s too..
That’s a location I would like to say not safe for teenagers unsupervised .to much street activity and people without homes not safe.
Does the health dept. even inspect “mobile food units”? They could easily sicken many people and then “disappear” in mere hours. At least you know who “owns” a brick & mortar restaurant.
Do they even inspect ” brick & mortar restaurants”?
Forget parking… it’s a business that doesn’t add much value or appeal to our community. Wasting money on junk made in China? Yay.
A claw machine arcade? Seems like a fairly niche business. I mean, don’t people know those machines are rigged to lose? As for the food trucks, they are all over other parts of Albany with no issues so the “food poisoning” issue is pretty moot. I hope the business is successful, but I’m not holding my breath.
oh my – sad concern for town – guess we need more Opera House and Ballet theaters downtown for Culture – klaw machine and food truck are declasse! nobody complain about too many tattoo shops on every block but klaw machines bad! seriously – complain or run for city council to change rules about business you want in town – easier to complain i see. sad.
I am always amazed at how comments in this blog go so far afield. Like when Hasso made the most innocuous blog post ever about ducks in the canal or some other normal daily occurrence a while back. It might as well have been an observation that the sky is sometimes blue, or not. I almost think he was baiting you. Somehow it became a reference to potholes, evil City Council intentions, selling useless city property to organizations that could make it useful, or a wicked misuse of CARA funds. It’s like an insane version of the 12 steps to Kevin Bacon thing. I do not claim to be an expert on any of the aforementioned, so I will leave that for all of you to debate endlessly (and the 6 of you that have a comment on EVERYTHING will) whether it has any relevance or not. Please do not respond to this comment with a bunch of nonsensical things that have nothing to do with my limited comment to this posting. In regard to the food truck thing, the parking places to the East and West of the parking lot have always been kind of useless. I remember when I was shopping there many times when it was Knecht’s (which was a GREAT place!) that no one would go anywhere near those spots if you had a choice. It’s almost impossible to back out of those spaces easily if you pull in headfirst, and backing into them took a large empty space to accomplish. You could park food trucks in both of those areas with no impact at all on useful parking. They are not going to need the loading dock on the west side like the auto parts store did. This is for the little crane kind of games? I really don’t see that as a big draw for teenagers and above. Maybe a minivan full of young ones? I apologize in advance to the Pothole/City Council/Cumberland/Downtown/CARA haters out there. My comment only applies to the parking space of this building, so let’s keep it focused, shall we?
Sincere commenting is good for the soul and for the mind…whether you and others approve or not. Hasso I think welcomes “most” comments. You are “all-knowing” (even though lengthy and bordering on cranky). Efficient of you to instruct us on what type of response we can write. You should be a regular commenter and enlighten us all. I’m sure you are right about the two end parking spaces in question.
Did you ever hear of paragraphs?
Who do you think you are to tell us what we can comment on? Hasso decides what he wants to print
You’re right.
I asked this question! I’ve been seeing the paint job and it made me wonder if the goth coffee shop in Lebanon was moving into Albany, ha. I do have to ask how well this business will do in Alb, since the arcade over by Costco isn’t usually very full. Neither is the ones in the Heritage Mall. Time will tell! :] Thanks for the information!