PENDLETON — The members of the Pendleton City Council handpicked the owners of the business that became BackFire Station and then granted them nearly a half-million dollars to help turn the old Fire Station No. 1 into a restaurant and motorcycle shop. Now those owners are returning to council chambers to ask for more money to complete the project.

The council will hold a special meeting Tuesday, Dec. 14, as the Pendleton Development Commission to consider more funding for BackFire Station. As of Dec. 10, details in the agenda were light. How much the owners were asking for or the specifics of what they would be spending the money on weren’t included.

The meeting Dec. 14 will mark the latest chapter in a relationship that goes back to April 2020.

When the fire department moved to a new headquarters in 2019, the city of Pendleton was left with an empty property at 911 S.W. Court Ave., just a block away from the Round-Up Grounds. The council balked at simply selling the property to the highest bidder and instead created a proposal submission process to determine the best use for the property as it transferred into private hands.

The city received two proposals. One was from La Grande developer Gust Tsiatsos would turn the property into a boutique hotel, while the other was from Moto Stuff, a Hillsboro motorcycle parts company owned by Scott Hart and Erin Bennett.

The couple was looking to expand their business to include a more front-facing component, and after the council selected Moto Stuff and sold the property to the business for $350,000, Hart and Bennett returned to the council last November for an urban development grant.

The pitch Hart and Bennett made to the council, acting as the development commission, was to turn the old fire station into a draw for locals and tourists alike. Their plans not only would move some of their Moto Stuff operations to Pendleton but also turn the front of the business into a restaurant, lounge and retail space. The next phase of development would create a rooftop townhome and turn the former firefighter living quarters into “microsuites.” The last phase of the project was slated to turn the training tower into a vacation rental and complete the main part of the building by adding a service shop and a motorcycle rental center.

The commission agreed to grant the $1.3 million project $494,819, and since then, Hart and Bennett opened BackFire Station to the public. According to the Dec. 14 agenda, the owners will make a presentation on the status of the renovation before requesting additional funds.

The development meeting will be at 6:30 p.m. at the council chambers in Pendleton City Hall, 500 S.W. Dorion Ave. The commission meeting will be immediately followed by a city council workshop at 7 p.m. Both meetings can also be accessed virtually via Zoom at bit.ly/3jKiFQy.