It’s checkout time for nostalgic Oregon oceanfront motel

Published 9:29 pm Saturday, October 9, 2010

YACHATS, Ore. — Mayor Ron Brean stayed at the rustic Shamrock Lodgettes when he was looking to buy a home here, so he shares the sense of loss and nostalgia that is rippling through town at the moment, at the news that the iconic cabins are on their way out.

At the same time, Brean said, “I know what kind of shape they’re in.”

Not historic enough to warrant any official designation and not viable enough as a business entity to be renovated, this cluster of cabins on a 4-acre parcel of property on the southern end of the coastal town of Yachats will be torn down by November’s end.

The lodgettes “are 60 years old,” the property’s new owner, David Rieseck, said. “So well before I was involved there’s been deferred maintenance. They’ve been loved to death.”

The pending demolition of the Shamrock has generated two distinct reactions: Sadness at the end of the lodgettes, and eagerness to get in on their replacements: 36 townhomes, some of which will be sold in a “fractional” manner, allowing as many as four property owners to buy in on a quarter of each residence for an estimated $200,000 apiece.

Whether saddened by the change or lured to the new investment opportunity, the end of the Shamrock era is a big deal for Yachats.

Rieseck — a developer, architect and city councilor — is finding out just how big a deal it is.

“I’ve got two people who want to take the entire cabins and move them,” said Rieseck, who bought the property three years ago. One of the cabins could be moved and renovated into a transitional housing shelter for the homeless.

“And in just the last week, we’ve had a run on key fobs.” Because the keys to the cabins come with a tag attached that says “Shamrock Lodgettes,” guests are swiping the keys as memorabilia when their stay is over.

At first, the nostalgia factor dominated the discussion about Shamrock, prompted in part by a soulful letter that Yachats resident Yves Nakahama penned to The Register-Guard.

“Have you ever felt that we have lost our sense of place and values?” Nakahama began, going on to describe the Shamrock as “so natural a phenomenon that it seems a part of the rugged coastal landscape, wind swept and weathered by the battering of storms and wrapped in a sheltering forest of pine. Slated for demolition without a single voice to speak for its salvation.”

The lodges’ disappearance would end the enrichment of future generations, Nakahama continued, imploring readers to “speak out before it’s too late.”

But it already was too late. Rieseck bought the property with the intent to develop it, which is why he spent $3.8 million. The property last sold in 1994, for $1.4 million. It’s in a hotel zone, so the city code allows for as much as a 230-room, three-story resort on the oceanfront property.

Rieseck said his plans, which require no variance or special-use permits, are far more restrained, and a better fit for the community. He has dubbed the townhome development Koho, in honor of a stickball game formerly played on the property by the Yachats band of Indians who once lived here.

The project will have one-, two- and three-level buildings, available for purchase either as full homes or in fractions. The fractions aren’t timeshares, Rieseck stresses, because the interest paid on the property is treated like a mortgage, and the owners each have possession of a lot, not just part of a building.

Timeshares typically only allow purchasers to stay in a property for a certain length of time and not necessarily in a particular unit, Rieseck said, and usually don’t include deeded interest in the real estate.

Rieseck has discovered that he also owns a section of land on the beach side of the road that snakes around the lodgettes — land most people assume is owned by the state of Oregon, because of the state’s all-public coastline. Perhaps because it’s technically bayfront property, this parcel wasn’t acquired by the state with the passage of the Beach Bill, and it’s zoned for development.

Rieseck said he has no plans to do that, however. Instead, he said he will dedicate the 1.5-acre beachfront section of the property to public ownership and use, along with a viewing platform and cultural and historical interpretive panels now being discussed with the Siletz Tribe.

Yachats resident Don Niskanen was one of many residents worried when the rumors started to circulate about the end of the lodgettes, but once he learned more about the project to replace them, his concerns abated.

One of the discussion points for the Shamrock had to do with the fiscal impact on the city, for example. Hotel taxes bring in about $80,000 a year to city coffers. But the mayor said that it’s unlikely Yachats will see a drop in visitors just because they have one less place to stay overnight.

And Rieseck said the city could stand to actually gain money, considering the city created an urban renewal district last year that will mean the return of property tax revenue that once went mostly into Lincoln County’s general fund. Urban renewal districts allow their creators to receive property taxes for specific projects, including infrastructure improvements such as sewers and street upgrades. Yachats is currently planning to build an $8 million sewage treatment plant.

With the property taxes that eventually wind up back in Yachats on a project that at full buildout would be worth $21.6 million, that money could come through sooner.

“We know change is coming to Yachats,” Niskanen said. “We’ve known it for a long time. The range of what we could have seen on that site goes all the way from trailer park to Worldmark,” a mammoth timeshare project in Depoe Bay.

Before the lodgettes close for good, Rieseck is planning a sale for sometime in November to unload some of the Shamrock memorabilia on the property.