New Holiday Inn Express Offers Rooms To Hospital

Owners of the new Holiday Inn Express on west Sixth Street have offered up a floor or two to Mid-Columbia Medical Center in the event additional beds are needed for health care.

Co-founder of Integrity Structures Gabe Duus said they made the offer when it was clear Covid-19 was curtailing travelers.

“I told them to let me know,” he said.

The hotel is expected to be complete next week. Initially, it was set to open a month ago. “We pumped the brakes a bit,” he said.

Staff has been hired. Local Steve Fish was chosen to be the general manager and Bob Woods, assistant manager.

“Bob lives on the same street that I did,” Duus said. Duus attended The Dalles High School.

In addition, another 18 employees have been hired to provide housekeeping, maintenance and customer service.

“They have been furloughed,” Duus said, noting hours will pick up when it is safe for people to resume travel. Otherwise, they have been hanging pictures, assembling shelves, cleaning rooms to prepare the hotel for opening.

“I just hope life gets back to normal here soon so people can travel here, eat at local restaurants and enjoy the Columbia gorge,” he said.

The four story, 93-room hotel went long on its initial budget of $12 million, Duus said, noting they added a back patio for guests. The 54,000-square-foot building is 43 feet tall and has changed the streetscape on West Sixth next to the Franz Bakery. Drivers have assuredly weaved around the new westbround turn lane into the site.

Duus said city officials made him aware of both enterprise and opportunity zone advantages to building in the location, greatly reducing the tax burden as the hotel makes its start.

The enterprise zone allowed Integrity to cap the property taxes on the raw land for the first two years. The building and property will be assessed at 50 percent, 75 percent and 100 percent in the following three years.

In addition, the federal opportunity zone allowed for investors in the hotel to sell stock and put their cash into the building without capital gains.

“It gives us three to five years to ramp up to full potential,” he said of the tax abatement. “It’s a huge help.”

Integrity used as many local contractors and service providers as possible including Steve Grover Construction, Tenneson Engineering, Crestline Construction, Bishop Sanitation, Bulldog Welding, Shuepbach Builders. Duus Also Thanked his team, including project supervisors Roberty Wymore.