For Sale: An Oregon C-store, Plus the Entire Town

TILLER, Ore. — For a total $3.85 million, one could be the owner of an entire Oregon town.

The town of Tiller, which is nestled on the banks of South Umpqua River, is up for sale, including 250 acres of land and property. According to Garrett Zoller, the listing agent for the property from Medford-based Land and Wildlife realty, said it's rare for 250 acres of land and property to become available that could be developed from scratch, reported The Oregonian.

Among key features of the town that would be included in the sale is Tiller Store, a general store not currently in operation. It includes a deli, a commercial kitchen, a gas pump and an apartment.

Other features of the sale include:

• 28 tax lots, making up more than 250 acres;
• Multiple domestic and agricultural community water rights;
• Nearly a mile of waterfront along the South Umpqua River and Elk Creek, as well as launch access for boats; and
• Approximately 2 million board feet of merchantable timber.

Tiller's elementary school has been closed for several years, and is a separate sale from the purchase of the town, the news outlet reported.

According to Zoller, there has been interest in the Tiller sale, from investors from China to developers looking to build a senior care facility and buyers interested in using the land for hemp production.

"The most important thing is the arrangement of the properties as a whole, with 28 different tax lots … it makes it very marketable," he commented. "It's an opportunity to do the development, and do it with a lot more elasticity and less bureaucracy."

An unincorporated town in Douglas County, Tiller sits at an elevation of 1,020 feet and is surrounded by the Umpqua National Forest and Bureau of Land Management lands. It is located roughly 30 miles east of Interstate 5 along Oregon Route 227.

Tiller has few actual residents, but there are 250 inhabitants nearby. On average, the town gets 40 inches of rain each year and about 3 inches of snow, with summer temperatures peaking 84 degrees and winter low temperatures reaching 33 degrees, The Oregonian reported.

The town of Tiller was named for Aaron Tiller, a pioneer in the area. The timber industry once dominated this part of Oregon, but much of Tiller's population moved away following the industry’s collapse in 1902.