Instead of renovating the Waldorf Hotel and converting it to low-income housing, the Clatsop County Housing Authority has used the dilapidated building next to Astoria City Hall as a part of its downpayment on an apartment complex in Seaside.

The CCHA is in the process of purchasing Estuary at Seaside, which it has renamed Clatsop Shores.

The buyer of the Waldorf is Cliff Poulton of Lewiston, Calif., who is selling the Seaside property to CCHA, according to Kirk Fausett, a local real estate developer who represented CCHA in the deal.

He said Poulton agreed to buy the Waldorf from CCHA for $400,000, so the agency could put the money toward the downpayment on the $4.25 million Seaside property. CCHA is also using a piece of vacant land and other assets as collateral for the downpayment in addition to $400,000, Fausett said.

Poulton is listed as trustee of the Poulton Family Trust on the Oregon Secretary of State’s Web site. The trust does business in Oregon as Poulton Family Oregon LLC, which owned the condominium.

CCHA Chairman Dave Phillips said this morning he is excited about acquiring Clatsop Shores, which he said will preserve workforce housing. He said CCHA has turned a potential of 21 425-square foot apartments at the Waldorf into 42 two-bedroom 950 square-foot apartments.

“I think it’s great for the mission of the Clatsop County Housing Authority that we were able to parlay an asset into some affordable housing,” he said.

CCHA received the Waldorf Hotel at no charge in 2005 in a deal brokered by John Berdes of ShoreBank Enterprise Cascadia with help from the Bank of Astoria, with the expectation the building would become local affordable housing.

Phillips said the property – now condominiums temporarily occupied by renters – will be changed back to apartments. All of the units are occupied, and those tenants will be able to stay, he said. “We’re keeping the rent where it is,” Phillips said.

According to Fausett, the rent is around $800 a month. He said purchasing Clatsop Shores was a complex arrangement. CCHA worked with Bank of Pacific for the financing.

“Bank of the Pacific really stepped up to the plate because it was affordable workforce housing,” Fausett said. “We’re pretty excited.”

Fausett said if CCHA had gone forward with the Waldorf renovation, it would have cost about $3 million to renovate and maintenance and operation of the 80-year-old building. “Now for just a little bit more we end up with twice as many units, twice as big, with yards for kids to play in and plenty of parking,” Fausett said. “It was a huge win.”

He said CCHA made an offer a year ago on the Seaside property for just a few units. “We were turned down flat,” he said. But they kept watching, and as the economy worsened, the owners realized they couldn’t sell the units, which were listed at $180,000 each. “The next thing you know – bam! – we got a run at it,” he said.

Phillips said CCHA had tried to work closely with the city and other community partners and had been ready to move forward with a deal for renovating the Waldorf, but couldn’t get commitments from potential tenants such as Clatsop Community College for student housing.

“We had to have tenants. The city was firm in its decision they wouldn’t pay for anything. They wanted us to give them the first floor.”

City Manager Paul Benoit congratulated CCHA on being able to increase workforce housing. He said this morning he had not been notified about the sale of the Waldorf, which shares a wall with City Hall and shares the basement with City Hall and the public library.

Benoit said he hopes CCHA put some conditions on the sale that will ensure that the buyer will have performance requirements to improve the blighted building. The city had been planning to expand City Hall into part of the first floor of the Waldorf.

Fausett said Poulton has experience buying old buildings and fixing them up. “He really likes the building. He’s not a neophyte,” Fausett said, adding it would be nice “if the city would do something with it – maybe put the engineering department in it.”

Fausett said that potential is still there. “CCHA did a good job of preserving the building and material and labor prices are strategically low,” he said. “It would make a great expansion for the city.”