By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
YACHATS – The new owner of the Adobe Motel and Restaurant plans to remodel the lobby, update rooms, retained its general manager and extended job offers to some 55 employees.
The sale of the Adobe properties was in progress for weeks and completed Friday, as expected.
Fusion Lodging of Portland purchased the 110-room motel, duplex, owner’s house and two separate parcels of land from Ed and Karen Pfanmuller of Eugene, who had owned the operation since 1977. It is the largest lodging complex in the city.
According to Lincoln County records, Fusion paid $15 million for the main, 9-acre Adobe property. It paid an additional $2.53 million for two mostly bare lots covering 4.73 acres on the north side of the motel complex that stretch from U.S. Highway 101 to the ocean. There are two older houses on the east edge of the lots.
“We are very excited to be adding such a beautiful property to our organization,” Sazzadur Rahman, Fusion Lodging chief executive officer and owner said in a statement. “We look forward to continuing operations and hope to keep all of the valued employees who have worked so hard to make the Adobe such a successful resort.”
Fusion Lodging is a rapidly growing hospitality company with 10 motels along the Oregon Coast, now stretching from Yachats to Seaside. The Adobe is twice the size of Fusion’s next largest property, the Clarion Surfrider Resort north of Depoe Bay.
In its statement, the company said it strives to provide accommodations for every budget, from family-friendly options to higher-end boutique properties.
“Many of our properties are beachfront, providing our guests stunning ocean views and beach accesses,” said Rahman, who founded the company in 2004. “The Adobe fits right into our portfolio with its large oceanfront restaurant and lounge, its many ocean view rooms and the 804 Trail access. We are looking forward to becoming a part of the Yachats community and bringing even more guests to the area.”
The company’s statement said all Adobe operations, including reservations, should continue as normal.
One of the questions the past few weeks is if Fusion would offer Anthony Muirhead a contract to continue as general manager. Muirhead is also a Yachats city council member.
“Yes, we are happy to be retaining Anthony Muirhead as the general manager,” marketing director Barbara Keckler told YachatsNews in an email. “He has been doing a great job and we are happy to keep him on board.”
On Monday, Muirhead thanked the Pfannmullers for their 45 years of ownership and the eight years he has been general manager.
“From the staff’s standpoint, we’re optimistic and excited for the future,” he told YachatsNews. “Change can be difficult but it’s also exciting with new ideas and a fresh perspective.”
Fusion is also looking to possibly add of some sort of housing on the two northern lots. A representative has shown the city of Yachats drawings for a development with 23 homes on the nearly 5 acres.
“We are exploring our options with this property,” Keckler said in her email. “We have lots of different ideas for the area and have talked with the city about some of these ideas. We have not developed those ideas into a firm plan but will keep the community up-to-date when we make a decision.”
The two lots are 1,060 feet long and bordered on the north by Smelt Sands Beach State Park. There are former shell middens on the west edge of the lots adjacent to the 804 Trail, which will require a state archeological report before they can be disturbed. Any development on the two lots could also be affected by wetlands, which would require a study by the Oregon Department of State Lands.
Fusion has been rapidly acquiring properties. Last summer it purchased two motels in Lincoln City — the 25-room Seagull Beachfront Inn and a 53-room Travelodge property that it renamed the Coastal Inn. It also bought the Coast River Inn and City Center Motel in Seaside and seven cabins in Oceanside near Tillamook in 2021.
Fusion also owns three properties in Newport – The Waves Motel, Newport Inn & Suites, and Moolack Shores Inn.
The Adobe opened in 1952 with 12 units constructed with bricks made with clay from the site by Larry Smith of Yachats, who then went to work in the restaurant as its chef.
The Adobe had 35 rooms and the Crow’s Nest lounge on a second floor when the Pfanmullers purchased it in 1977. Over the years they expanded by adding a second floor of rooms, two wings of rooms on the north and south sides of the motel, built the duplex and indoor pool, and expanded or added the restaurant and lounge.
- Quinton Smith, a longtime Oregon journalist, is the founder and editor of YachatsNews.com and can be reached at YachatsNews@gmail.com