BAKER CITY — Gust Tsiatsos steps off the Leo Adler Memorial Parkway and enters the Boys Jungle.

Which no longer much resembles a jungle.

Tsiatsos, a contractor and developer from La Grande, bought this property, along with four other nearby parcels totaling about 13 acres, last year.

This winter, his workers cut and trimmed trees and removed much of the undergrowth that gave the Boys Jungle the name it has had for many decades.

Although this approximately 2-acre piece of ground, just north of D Street and with the Powder River forming its western border, has always been private property, for generations of Baker youth it was a chunk of wildland within the city with its towering cottonwoods and willows.

More recently, though, city officials have described the Boys Jungle as an “attractive nuisance,” a place where juveniles went to drink alcohol or smoke, screened from view by the dense foliage.

In 2011 the city asked the former owner, Ben Dean, to clean up the property and install private property and no trespassing signs.

The signs went up and some of the brush came down.

Property cleanup

But Tsiatsos, whose company, GCT Land Management Inc., bought the property and the other parcels from Dean, did a much more thorough job.

Most of the mature trees remain, but in between the ground is largely bare, and visibility is much improved.

Tsiatsos said that after he bought the Boys Jungle he found evidence that it had been used as a homeless camp.

Joyce Bornstedt, the city’s technical administrative supervisor and also its parks coordinator, said Tsiatsos’ efforts have greatly improved the situation at the Boys Jungle, which is one of the more popular sections of the Leo Adler Memorial Parkway.

That paved path for pedestrians and bicyclists, which the city built about 20 years ago, runs through the eastern edge of the Boys Jungle.

“We really appreciate the effort in cleaning that area up,” Bornstedt said.

She said the city, which has a street right-of-way east of the path, also plans to do some tree trimming and other work in that area this year to complement the Boys Jungle transformation.

Bornstedt said the city has received many comments from residents since Tsiatsos started work in the Boys Jungle this winter, and almost all were pleased about the changes.

Tom Clement, of Baker City, who spearheaded projects over the past two years to trim trees, remove underbrush and generally spruce up the riverside strip next to two other sections of the Adler Parkway, also lauded Tsiatsos’ work in the Boys Jungle.

Clement said he’s talked to many people who mistakenly credited him with cleaning up Boys Jungle, and the vast majority were happy with the results.

Tsiatsos said he realized when he bought the property that even though it’s private, people did trespass, and that the conditions, with overhanging limbs and obstacles hidden by brush, were potentially dangerous.

“We recognized it to be a bit of a hazard, and we’re trying to be good neighbors and get rid of some blight and still keep its romantic appeal to the city,” Tsiatsos said. “We tried to keep the feel of what it was. We’re really happy with how it turned out.”

He’d also like to be able to eventually remove the private property and no trespassing signs still affixed to several trees.

Tsiatsos said he would prefer to transfer the Boys Jungle to the city for use as a public park.

Bornstedt said Tsiatsos has suggested a deal by which the city could make concessions for utility payments for the rest of the property he bought, in exchange for his donating the Boys Jungle.

That’s not possible, Bornstedt said, because of accounting issues, since the water and wastewater departments are separate funds in the city’s budget from the parks department, which is in the general fund.

Tsiatsos said he understands the potential bureaucratic obstacles.

But he still hopes he can work out an agreement with the city to transfer the Boys Jungle.

He said he’s also considered conveying the land to the Veterans Administration for use as a public park dedicated to veterans.

If neither of the public park options is feasible, Tsiatsos said he probably would try to incorporate the Boys Jungle parcel into his plans to develop residential housing for the rest of the property.

“I’d prefer it to be a park,” he said.

Tsiatsos said he had the work done this winter, after the ground was frozen, to reduce damage to the soil from the heavy equipment.

He said he intends to plant native shrubs in parts of the property.

Veteran housing

Although the Boys Jungle work has been the most conspicuous evidence of Tsiatsos’ purchase of the parcels between D and H streets, it’s actually a relatively small part of his overall plan.

His chief purpose is to create housing for military veterans.

Tsiatsos expects construction to start within 45 days on the first phase, which will include 13 rental cottage-style homes and a community center. Those will be built in the lot directly north of Memory Lane Homes assisted living facility on F Street just east of Elkhorn Village apartments.

(The apartments are not part of the property Tsiatsos bought.)

The cottages are in the “tiny home” style, he said, covering about 500 square feet for the one-bedroom version (nine of those in the first phase) and slightly larger for the four two-bedroom units.

A new private street will access the cottages, running north and south between F and H streets.

The development is similar to the 10-cottage Veterans Village Union County that Tsiatsos built in La Grande. It opened in the fall of 2021.

For the Baker City development, Tsiatsos said he secured a $1.5 million grant from Oregon Housing and Community Services to go along with $350,000 to $450,000 of private investment. He said the Northeast Oregon Housing Authority would manage the development.

Rick Gloria, Baker County’s veteran services officer, said he has met with Tsiatsos and is excited about the development and its benefits for local veterans.

“It will be awesome,” Gloria said. “Housing is so hard to find here, and it will be great to have another resource.”

He said he can work with local veterans who might qualify for a federal voucher that pays 70% of rental costs.

The second phase of the development involves building cottages that would be available for sale to veterans, rather than rental units, Tsiatsos said. That phase would be south of the first phase, nearer F Street.

Tsiatsos also owns the vacant lot north of Elkhorn Village apartments. The parcel extends to H Street, with the Powder River at the west edge and the Adler Parkway running through the eastern part.

He said he is considering a residential development on that parcel, but he has no specific plans.

“We tried to keep the feel of what it was. We’re really happy with how it turned out.”

— Gust Tsiatsos, owner, talking about cleaning up the Boys Jungle

“We really appreciate the effort in cleaning that area up.”

— Joyce Bornstedt, Baker City public works department