GEARHART – The Gearhart Hotel will rise from the ashes for a fourth time.

McMenamins and the Gearhart Golf Links are reviving the Gearhart Hotel name for a new 18-room hotel above the Sand Trap Bar & Grill on the third floor of the Kelly House.

“The third floor is currently a bunch of dust and broken nails,” said Jason Bangild, general manager of Gearhart Golf Links.

This hotel will differ somewhat from McMenamins’ typical European-style hotel. The rooms will have queen- or king-size beds, en suite bathrooms, telephones and televisions.

They will be decorated in a “Pacific Northwest coastal style” and feature McMenamins’ whimsical artwork.

The hotel is scheduled to open Memorial Day weekend, May 25. It will begin accepting reservations in February. Rates will start at $125 a night.

“One of the most endearing things, as a golfer, is a stay-and-play package,” Bangild said. “Eat, sleep and play golf.”

Bangild said he doesn’t foresee the small hotel as significant competition for the Gearhart by the Sea Resort, which rents offices on the second floor of the Kelly House and operates resort condos across the street from the golf course.

Gearhart by the Sea rents out about 85 of its one- to three-bedroom condos.

“We’ve had a good working relationship with the McMenamins,” said Paul Tice, general manager of Gearhart by the Sea. “We might take a little hit on our basic one-bedroom condos, but hopefully we’ll attract more business for all.

“We just hope to bring more awareness to this area,” Tice said.

“It will affect our business tremendously,” Bangild said. “It will make our tournaments so much easier to market.”

Bangild said he has made a point of increasing the number of tournaments that Gearhart Golf Links puts on each year, from three to more than 12. The course also hosts 30 to 40 corporate, family and club tournaments each year.

During the hotel’s grand opening weekend May 25 to May 27, Gearhart Golf Links and McMenamins will provide a golf tournament, live music, house ales, wines, spirits and coffee tastings, among other activities.

Gearhart Golf Links was built in 1892 and is one of the oldest links courses west of the Mississippi.

Tim Boyle, president and CEO of Columbia Sportswear, and his children own the course and the Kelly House.

The new Gearhart Hotel had three predecessors over the past 122 years, each at different sites in Gearhart but all connected with the pioneer golf course.

The original Hotel Gearhart, built in 1890, was a popular summertime retreat for wealthy Portlanders and their families. Within a year or two, an informal golf course was laid out nearby (which evolved into today’s 18-hole Gearhart Golf Links).

It burned down in 1913, as did it successor two years later.

The third Hotel Gearhart opened in 1923 and remained an Oregon Coast landmark until being razed in 1972.

The newest incarnation of the Gearhart Hotel is owned by McMenamins, which will lease the third floor of the Kelly House from Gearhart Golf Links.

McMenamins and Gearhart Golf Links have been doing business together since McMenamins opened the Sand Trap Bar & Grill about four years ago.

“The relationship is great, because they’re the same type of people,” said Bangild. “They’re fun people and all about Oregon.”

McMenamins’ preferred contractor, Pacific Crest Construction of Troutdale, began demolition Jan. 2. “It’s virtually a new building, so we’re not dealing with the same problems as in a historic building,” said Joe Vondrak, president of Pacific Crest.

The Kelly House was rebuilt in 2000 following a fire in the summer of 1998.

Vondrak said most of the subcontractors will be brought in from Portland, but that Pacific Crest has hired Inland Electric of Seaside, as well as local carpenters who worked on building the pub.

Lumber and supplies will come from Gearhart Building Supply, he said.

Vondrak estimated the cost of construction at $800,000.