Nothing was going on Monday afternoon outside this building at 2400 Pacific Blvd. S.W.
A reader’s question sent the bike and me to 2400 Pacific Blvd. S.W. in Albany on Monday afternoon. She had noticed construction activity at the address and wondered what was going on.
It’s the address of the Albany office of Cache Valley Electric, a big specialty electrical contractor headquartered in Logan, Utah. Eric Laub, one of the principals in the family-owned company, is listed as the registered agent of Pacific Boulevard Properties, the Utah limited liability company shown as the property owner on Linn County tax records.
The building is the former site of Schoen’s Motors. Cache Valley Electric bought the 3-acre property from Schoen’s in 2022 for $1,375,000.
So what’s happening? I didn’t reach the company. But a man at the site Monday afternoon told me the building is being remodeled as offices for Cache Valley.
The company also has an office in Portland. Besides its corporate headquarters in Utah, it also has branches in Hawaii, Arkansas, Texas, Colorado and Arizona.
The company website says Cache Valley has been in business for 109 years, employs about 2,470 people, and has completed projects in 102 countries.
The website shows a wide variety of work the company does, from building high-power transmission lines to installing IT and communications systems in hospitals and hotels.
I was intrigued by one project in particular, the construction of the infrastructure for an electric bus system in Ogden, Utah. It shows how those buses are charged: with a gizmo that is lowered on to the roof when the bus makes a stop.
The contraption looks kind of cool, even if it’s not the sort of project in which the company’s Albany branch was involved. (hh)
Use to be Harrold and Jensen Case a dn Oliver dealer ship,
It’s nice to see that building being “repurposed”. It has a long history going back from the most recent, Schoens, to a dealer in farm equipment, I believe the name was Harold and Jensen, dating back into the 1940’s or earlier. If my memory serves correctly they also tried their hand at a foreign car dealership in the 1970’s.
Use to be Harrold and Jensen, Case and Oliver equipment dealer ship,
They also were the first place in Albany to sell Datsun sports cars (Datsun Fairlady)
1971-73, I had a Fairlady. Wish I still had it. Great little car!
Thank you so much Hasso for looking into this new construction… I too am happy to see a building be repurposed, and brought back to life!
It’s also nice to hear this is a family business that’s expanding into keeping up with new technology!