If anyone can make lemonade from lemons, as the saying goes, it’s the people at the North Bend Les Schwab.

The tire shop that was crippled by an April 2014 gas explosion on a nearby site had limited operations for weeks after the blast and took almost six months to celebrate a grand re-opening. Now, a little over a year since the devastation, the company is donating a parcel of land to help the city of North Bend in its post-explosion improvement efforts.

It’s not a large property, just .2 acres, but the effect this particular property could have for North Bend’s Torguson Park, as well as a developer planning to rebuild on the explosion site, is much bigger than it looks.

“We’ve always kind of wanted to create a better entrance to Torguson Park,” said North Bend Planning and Economic Development Director Gina Estep.

With the Les Schwab donation, the city will be able to — and at very little cost, since the new owner of the explosion site intends to work with the city to grant public access to the park through his property. He will also develop an eight-foot-wide paved trail for pedestrian access from North Bend Way, along with other open spaces, as required by city code on residential developments.

As proposed, the site will be redeveloped into a three-story building, with 5,000 feet of retail space on the ground floor, and two stories of condos, 32 in all, above that.

“We’re working with him to say ‘your recreation space will be this Torguson Park entrance,’” said Estep.

It will be larger, actually. Associate Planner Lynn Fredenburg said the site’s current plans include another 2,000-plus square feet of private open space, on the second floor, plus a large pedestrian plaza and picnic area in front.

Although the actual work on the new park entrance will depend on the developer, the city is moving forward with a boundary line adjustment process for the property.

North Bend’s Les Schwab store sits on an L-shaped site; the foot of the L adjoins city-owned Torguson Park to the north, wrapping behind the site of the explosion. The wedge of land to be donated was bought as part of the parcel, Schallhorn said, and it’s never been used for anything but landscaping.

“One of the thoughts was possibly an extra warehouse but the shape of the land prohibited that,” Schallhorn said.

Donating the parcel will shorten the foot of the L, but not completely square off the Les Schwab property. The store requested a five-foot landscaping buffer in return for the land, and specified that the property should be used strictly for the improvement of the park.

“Les Schwab knew there was a need for additional park access and saw this was an opportunity to work with the city… in our own backyard,” Schallhorn said. “It just makes the park a lot better.”

North Bend’s City Council voted Aug. 4 to proceed with the boundary line adjustment process. Cost to the city will be an estimated $3,000 surveying fee, to be paid with park impact fees.

Fredenburg said of Les Schwab, “They’ve just been really great to work with and have been very community focused.”

“It’s really exciting, and it will be great to see all these pieces of property get a face lift,” she concluded.