Click Here to See The 15 Page White Sheet From Aaron Stickney
SALEM — A planned riverfront development at the old cannery on Front Street is being pitched as more than another apartment project. For Aaron Stickney, co-founder of SilverSphere Capital, The Cannery is also a test case for a larger idea: Salem has assets it is not fully using, and the riverfront may be the place to prove what is possible.
Stickney said the first phase of The Cannery is planned as a 383-unit multifamily rental complex with about 60,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space. The project is designed around three buildings, varied facades, rooftop restaurant spaces, landscaping, lighting and a cobblestone-style walkway meant to feel less like a single apartment block and more like a village.
“We want to make this a destination, not just an apartment complex,” Stickney said.
The project sits along the Willamette River, which Stickney called one of Salem’s greatest underused resources. He said the development team wants the site to become a catalyst for broader riverfront activity, with restaurants, outdoor seating, music and public-facing spaces that draw people who do not live in the apartments.
A previous concept for the site included a stadium, but Stickney said that plan is no longer being pursued. He said the stadium did not “pencil out,” would have created heavy traffic and faced community opposition. Instead, phase two is expected to include another roughly 400 units and about 70,000 square feet of additional retail and restaurant space. That second phase, he said, has not yet gone through entitlement.
The project still has hurdles. Stickney said the team has worked through several major site issues, including a gas valve relocation and a retaining wall solution. The remaining major issue, he said, is a railroad agreement needed before a building permit can be pulled. He said demolition, foundation work and excavation could move ahead first, giving the team time to resolve the railroad issue.
“The last thing is the railroad,” Stickney said. “We need a railroad agreement in order for me to pull a building permit.”
The Cannery also connects to an updated asset utilization report Stickney prepared for Salem. The report argues the city could generate $6 million to $12 million in new annual revenue by 2030 by changing how it uses assets it already controls, including parking garages, development parcels, parks, riverfront property and civic infrastructure. The recommendations include reviewing downtown garage pricing after the city’s first full year of paid parking data, advancing development agreements for Block 50 and Block 45, adopting a ground-lease-first policy for city-owned surplus land and advancing a North Waterfront urban renewal area.
The report also identifies riverfront programming as an opportunity, but notes that federal Section 4(f) restrictions may limit commercial activity in parts of Riverfront Park and recommends a boundary study before new concessions or leasing are pursued.
Stickney said the point is not to ask Salem residents for another tax increase, but to make existing assets work harder.
“Raising taxes shouldn’t be the default switch that they use to correct a fiscal problem,” he said.
The plan’s estimates are ambitious and would require city action, public review and formal feasibility work before becoming policy. But the core argument is straightforward: Salem already owns or controls assets that could produce recurring income if managed differently.
For Stickney, the private project and the public-policy pitch are linked. A successful Cannery project, he said, could help change how investors, developers and residents think about Salem’s riverfront.
“If the city of Salem does better as a developer, I do better,” Stickney said. “If the community does better, we all do better.”
Whether The Cannery becomes that kind of turning point will depend on execution, financing, city coordination and public trust. But the project is already raising a larger question for Salem: whether the city wants its riverfront to remain a backdrop, or become one of its main economic engines.
