By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
Glen and Katherine Aukstikalnis were driving down Highway 101 in November 2009 looking a rental house to buy. Instead, three miles north of Yachats they saw a “For Sale” sign on Deane’s Oceanside Lodge.
The 19-room oceanfront motor lodge had sat empty for a year after its elderly former owners got the property back in a 2008 foreclosure.
“It was in tired shape,” Glen Aukstikalnis told YachatsNews. “It had been closed for about a year. Ed and Alice (Laurick) were in their 80s and not thrilled about having a motel again.”
Both Aukstikalnises worked at Hewlett-Package in Corvallis and were also tired of the corporate pressures and scene. So they bought the motel and 3.75 acres from the Lauricks for $1.2 million and went into the lodging business.
“We decided to do something different,” Aukstikalnis said.
On July 29, they wrapped up their 12-year ownership of the funky 75-year-old motel by selling it to Frank Hotels of Long Beach, Wash., a small but fast-growing chain that focuses on smaller, medium-priced properties in tourist areas of Oregon and Washington.
“Deane’s checks all the boxes for the type of motel we buy,” said company owner Mark Frank. “That’s a special property in a high tourism area.”
It is the second sale of an oceanfront motel in the Yachats area in the past three months. In April, Fusion Lodging of Portland bought the 110-room Adobe Motel and Restaurant from longtime owners Ed and Karen Pfanmuller of Eugene.
Catering to post WWII travelers
Deane’s Oceanside Lodge opened in 1947, taking the last name of its original owners. It catered to post World War II families venturing along the Oregon coast in newly available and affordable automobiles.
The ocean was just 100 yards away across a massive lawn. There was a small restaurant located at the intersection of the two motel wings where guests could order a New York steak dinner for $2.95 or a ham sandwich for 45 cents.
The area now serves as the motel’s laundry and cleaning supply room.
It went through several owners until the Lauricks bought it in 1980. In 2005 they sold it to a four-person partnership, which changed the name to Soma and planned to tear it down and build condominiums. The 2008 housing crash ended that dream, and the Lauricks got back ownership of the property.
Once the Aukstikalnises bought it, Katherine ran the motel the first two years while Glen stayed at HP in Corvallis before moving over to help, living in the duplex just to the north. They remodeled rooms one at a time, using a decorating theme Glen Aukstikalnis calls “beachy kitch.” They also changed the name, replacing the original “Oceanside” with “Oceanfront.”
In addition to the usual issues of running a tourist-focused business with 10 employees, Glen Aukstikalnis said a motel such as Deane’s presented some unusual challenges. The coastal motel business, he said, “is six months of crazy, 2-3 months where you make a little money and three where you try to break even.”
Deane’s guests are a little different as well. Many remember staying with their parents, Aukstikalnis said, and others “are mad because you are not the Holiday Inn Express.”
“We have hundreds of guests who come back year after year,” he said.
The best feeling is when guests arrive tired and crabby from traveling, Aukstikalnis said, “And then they spend the night and they’re all better. That’s the reward part of it.”
Glen Aukstikalnis said they put the motel on the market six years ago, but didn’t get any serious offers. Then a motel broker from that effort made contact again this spring. A week later they had an offer.
Bowling alleys to motels
Frank Hotels is a family business headed by 61-year-old Mark Frank, who got into the lodging businesses after selling two Portland bowling alleys – the Hollywood Bowl and the Rose Bowl. The company bought its first motel in Long Beach in 2014 and will own 12 once it sells non-tourist properties in Kelso, Wash. and Ontario, Ore. Its closest Oregon motel is in Lincoln City.
“We’ve been expanding at a pretty good pace,” Frank said in an interview with YachatsNews. “I went from booking bowling lanes to booking rooms.”
Frank said he looks for motels in good tourist locations with direct beach access. The company paid $3.395 million for Deane’s, he said, and is retaining general manager Chad Smith and staff.
“Glen did a wonderful job with that motel,” Frank said.
But as with most new owners, there will be other changes, including upgraded Wifi and connection to the chain’s reservation system and an after-hours call center.
Within a few months, Deane’s will get a new name — Tillicum Beach Motel — to more closely reflect its location, Frank said. Room furnishings and designs will slowly be updated be a “mid-Century modern coast motel” and Frank wants to put more amenities in the large grass area between the motel and the ocean.
“It will be a real fun package that fits the Yachats area,” he said. “We love the Oregon coast and we’re excited to he in Yachats.”
Hitting the road?
The sale means changes for the Aukstikalnises as well.
The couple moved back to Corvallis three years ago, Glen Aukstikalnis said, “to see if we can do it,” leaving day-to-day operations to their general manager and coming over once a week.
Glen Aukstikalnis, 60, said he wants to buy an RV and travel. Katherine Aukstikalnis, 50, is not ready to retire and has taken a part-time job with the Oregon Cascades West Council of Government’s Meals on Wheels program.
“I just want to take it easy for awhile,” he said.
- Quinton Smith, a longtime Oregon journalist, is the founder and editor of YachatsNews.com and can be reached at YachatsNews@gmail.com
This is a fabulous place to stay! All of the staff are so friendly and accommodating. We and our two dogs plan to come back every year!