Old Seaside City Hall site focus of new development

Published 4:00 pm Thursday, January 31, 2008

A neglected Seaside intersection will see major changes soon.

The corner of U.S. Highway 101 and Broadway is currently the site of an aging historic building that has become more eyesore than icon in recent years. The old Seaside City Hall has stood vacant for almost two decades, quietly falling into ruin next to an empty lot.

Seaside developer Ken Ulbricht aims to change that, and bring significant business development to the block surrounding the old city hall site. He said the project began with the former city hall building and expanded with time.

“We started out by purchasing the old city hall property and the corner property in front of it,” he said.

Over time the project has grown to encompass almost the entire city block along the south side of Broadway.

Development plans include retail space on the corner of Broadway and U.S. Highway 101. A well-known national retailer will occupy space in the corner complex; CRBJ has honored Ulbricht’s request to temporarily hold off on announcing who that will be until the company makes a statement.

A new hotel is slated for construction at the southeast corner of the site, a restaurant and meeting space where the old city hall building stands, a parking garage west of the hotel, and retail space and apartments on the site of the old Moose Lodge building.

The Seaside Planning Commission approved the project in January.

Architect Thomas Johnson of Portland has created a scale model of the proposed development site (see photo).

While some existing buildings on the block, including the old Moose Lodge, will be razed to make room for new construction, Ulbricht said he will do everything possible to save the old city hall structure.

“The building is in bad disrepair. We had two engineers look at it,” he said. “It seems 50/50 to save it or demolish it. Right now it is our fullest intention to renovate.”

Ulbricht, an accountant by profession, is also the president of the North Coast Land Conservancy, a non-profit group whose mission is to protect the region from overdevelopment.

That perspective has influenced his approach to the handful of development projects he’s completed around the region. The Seaside project will be built to conform to LEED criteria, considered the gold standard for green construction.

LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. It’s a program developed by the US Green Building Council to set a global standard for sustainable development. The program offers certification to developers whose buildings meet LEED standards.

“You need to use energy efficient measures to qualify,” Ulbricht said. “They use a point scoring system.”

He said the project will be an upgrade to the Broadway district and include environmentally friendly strategies like buildings designed to filter roof runoff before it enters the municipal system.

“Natural resources are the draw on the coast,” he said. “Anytime we protect natural resources it protects the values of why we chose to live here.”

Ulbricht said the hotel will be a “midmarket product,” “so a family can come here and get a decent room rate.”

The proposed parking garage behind the hotel was a necessity to satisfy parking requirements for the businesses that will occupy the property. And the old Moose Lodge site will see a new building.

“The first floor will be retail space, and the second and third floors will be workforce housing for people who work in the district,” he said.

Ulbricht has done a few other projects around the region, including the Whaler’s Point condos at Tillamook Head, and The Whimbrell’s building in Seaside where his accounting office is located. That office and retail building was constructed as commercial condos, still a relatively new concept on the coast.

He’s seen the cost of coastal development rise significantly in recent years.

“The price of real estate is so expensive that we have to utilize vertical space to justify the cost,” Ulbricht said.