By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews
YACHATS – The new owner of the Adobe motel has big plans.
A full remodel of 110 rooms. A full remodel of the lobby. Sprucing up the exterior with new landscaping.
And that’s just this year.
After the motel is remodeled, Fushion Lodging owner and chief executive Sazzadur Rahman plans to tackle the large open area between the motel and U.S. Highway 101, with plans for up to 30 daily rental townhomes clustered around a central recreation-oriented gathering area and conference center.
“My vision is big,” Rahman said in a sit-down interview with YachatsNews prior to hosting a Yachats Chamber of Commerce 2023 kickoff event Tuesday evening. “We want to make it a lot nicer experience for our guests.”
But Rahman acknowledges there is a lot of work – and studies – to do first. A design team was scheduled to arrive Thursday to finish plans for a total overhaul of the rooms, which he hopes to have completed before the busy summer season. A landscape designer will recommend changes for the ocean side of the property.
Rahman hopes to attack the lobby late next fall. “It will be brand new and fresh,” he said.
There will also be a new Adobe logo, color scheme and a rebranding for Yachats’ largest motel.
“There are things to improve the guest experience,” he said. “It’s not like you have to tear it down … but freshen it up.”
Fushion Lodging owns 13 motels on the Oregon coast, stretching from Yachats in the south to Seaside in the north. It purchased the Adobe last May from longtime owners Ed and Karen Pfanmuller of Eugene, paying $15 million for the main, 9-acre Adobe property and $2.53 million for two mostly bare lots covering 4.73 acres on the north side of the motel complex.
While admitting his remodeling and development estimates “are figures I just have in my head” Rahman said the motel remodel could cost $2 million and the property development $10 million over the next three years.
Fusion has state-required wetlands and archeology studies under way that will help determine what, how and where it can build between the motel and the highway. It must then navigate the city of Yachats’ permitting and land-use planning process.
“It’s a complex process … everything has to be looked at properly before we really know what we can do,” Rahman said. “There are a lot of unknowns and still a lot to figure out.”
Engineering and motels
Rahman grew up in Bangladesh and moved to Reno in 2004 to study engineering at the University of Nevada. He started working in motels “on the side” he said, then began assembling partners to buy and manage them – all while working as an engineer.
His first foray into Oregon came in 2009 when he became a partner in a friend’s purchase of a motel in Seaside. By 2017 he left his engineering job and moved to Oregon to establish Fusion Lodging and begin concentrating on coastal properties.
The Adobe is the fast-growing company’s biggest purchase, double the size of the next largest, the Clarion Surfrider Resort north of Depoe Bay. Other properties are in Newport, Lincoln City, Netarts, Oceanside and Seaside.
“It’s such a nice place,” he said of the Adobe. “I have ocean side properties, but this is so quiet and calm.”
Property plans
While he was attracted to the beachfront motel, Rahman said it was the acres of undeveloped land that piqued his interest for its possibilities. He’s had an architect create drawings of a possible layout – which he is not comfortable widely sharing yet – that shows the motel entrance moving to the north, then winding through clusters of townhomes and open spaces.
He’s also considering the possibility of small stores or galleries along the highway so guests can have access to shopping within walking distance.
Rahman plans to use the buildings – an apartment and the Pfanmuller’s former vacation home — on the south side of the current entrance for motel managers and workers. Fusion is also considering building dormitory-style living quarters for more temporary summer help.
“We’ll need more employees so we’ll need more employee housing,” he said.
The motel typically has 50 full-time employees growing to 80 in the busy tourist season.
Plans for the north 4.5 acres are farther behind, Rahman said. That too will be heavily impacted by the wetlands and archeological studies. But the general idea is to develop 20-24 houses on lots available for sale.
“All this process will take time,” Rahman said. “But we have the bandwidth to do this.”
Anthony Muirhead was general manager under the Pfanmullers and remains so with Fusion. He told 100 people at the chamber gathering Tuesday that “from all the plans I’ve seen they’re really, really exciting.”
“It’s going to drive a lot more revenue for the town,” the former city councilor said, referring to lodging taxes that pay for many city of Yachats services.
- Quinton Smith is the editor of YachatsNews.com and can be reached at YachatsNews@gmail.com
It is reassuring that former city councilor Anthony Muirhead is still on board as general manager. He is very trustworthy and it is hoped that his good judgment will be considered and utilized as planning turns to reality.
That means a lot to me thank you 😊
The plans sound great! That property certainly needs an update; the grounds and the appearance of the building on the west side overlooking the ocean are disgusting. It’s good to have an owner who recognizes those challenges, sees the opportunity to make better use of the land to the east of the hotel building, and is developing plans to make it happen. Hopefully, the red tape won’t be too difficult to overcome.
Exciting. Love the Adobe
The community of Yachats has been struggling to come up with an achievable and sustainable water plan to handle the increased demand during drought/tourist season. Simply buying more water from the next nearest water districts isn’t a very sustainable plan given those districts also rely on surface water sources and are experiencing the same problems/limitations. I worry about how the proposed development will negatively impact the water situation. Can the natural resources we rely on handle the continued tourism growth in our coastal communities?
I’m with you C.D. What about the water. More rooms, more houses, where do you think the water will come from to support this move? Raising our monthly water bill? Come on folks, get real, the water issue needs attention.
Any chance that room rates will return to what they were when you purchased the place? We use to stay there once a year. Not anymore since you doubled the room rates.
With all due respect, water is a huge issue here on the coast. Infrastructure is next and bottleneck traffic on Highway 101. Yes big plans sound great but think about the infrastructure and the environmental damages, let alone congestion, noise and the little things that go with a big idea. The Adobe is a special place for a lot of people. Please don’t ruin it by making it so commercially huge that it looses the quaint identity it has brought to Yachats.
I’ve been coming here for many many years. It definitely needed an update. Unfortunately I’m coming before that update will take place. However, I hear that they did away with the crab bowl. To me that has to be one of the stupidest moves they can make. Every single time I’ve been there, and that’s been many, everybody seems to have at least one or two of those bowls at their table for dinner. I know they made it into a dip but from what I hear it’s thin and runny and nothing like the crab bowl was. Please bring that back. Otherwise I love the Adobe and I hope the changes are good.
One of the things I love about the Adobe are the wide open spaces for children and dogs to play. Hoping there is a lot of thought put into wide open spaces. Also the Adobe is a very unique and quaint experience. Hoping the “Big Idea’ does not take that away.
Expansion usually requires more labor force. So where are all these people going to live who are going to work at Adobe 2.0? There is nowhere to rent long term as it stands currently. Does the community even need this or want this? Can the community resources really sustain a $10 million resort development in a time where global overheating is causing climate chaos and only increasingly so? Wouldn’t this owner contribute more to our community if he were to enhance the area for pollinators, wetlands animals and plants? It seems like the Adobe has already been a profitable endeavor and must be a going concern to demand that sort of a sales price. So does the new owner (who already owns 13 other motel/hotels) really need to make a ton more money while we deal with the increased traffic, trash, noise, pollution? More development in a small town will soon make it a small town no longer.
We love the Adobe our place to stay with our dogs and enjoy the walks along the beach trail. Looked forward to the food while watching the waves. Will be sad if can’t afford.
I have been coming to the Adobe Resort since the days when it still had “Carports” so I have seen the many changes that have happened over the years. Since the resort was sold, many of the great things that made the resort such a wonderful place to stay have gone away. As stated earlier, the crab bowl has gone away as well as the peppercorn steak and many other items on the menu. The new computerized reservation system is totally messed up. You make a reservation and reserve one special room and when you get there, that room has been given to another customer and your room has been changed to another room in a different wing of the motel. The article states that the new owner wants to remodel the lobby. The lobby of the Adobe is one of the things that give the resort its unique look, and it is the original Adobe bricks that were used in the construction of the resort that allows the guests to see the original construction and how the place got its name in the first place. Update the rooms, okay, remodel the kitchen, okay as long as they leave the dining room and bar area the same. Building homes and shops in front of the resort? No way. That open area is another thing that gives the resort its charm and appeal — but getting rid of the moles might be a good idea,
We love the Adobe and it has been where we had our wedding reception and many family reunions. This past summer we stayed there and there were huge mixups with a new computer system installed with minimal training for staff. The Adobe staff did their best. I believe in direct communication and did so to the CEO and manager. Heard nothing back. That was disappointing.
Yes, bring back the crab bowl, I will drive 2,900 miles to eat it again.