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THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2021
An artist’s rendering of the Home2 Suites by Hilton that recently opened in Bend.
Redmond hotel growth a boon for business
By SUZANNE ROIG
The Bulletin
The developer of two hotels in Redmond
and one in Bend is bullish on central Ore-
gon and plans to add more near the Pine
Ridge Inn on SW Mt. Bachelor Drive.
Wealth Hospitality, which formerly was
called Heritage Hospitality, will be respon-
sible for building more hotel rooms over the
next decade in Bend and Redmond, accord-
ing to Chico Patel, company president. The
development company recently opened a
Home2 Suites near St. Charles Bend.
Central Oregon has seven to eight months
a year of occupancies north of 80%, Patel
said. Those are great rates for a developer
especially in markets that cater to the out-
doors and are projecting continued growth.
“We’re looking at a combination of lei-
sure and business travelers at these proper-
ties,” Patel said. “The growth of Redmond
has been exceptional.”
Normally a town the size of Redmond
with a population of about 36,000, accord-
ing to U.S. Census Bureau 2019 estimates,
has nearly a dozen major branded hotels,
Patel said. Today it has a Comfort Suites,
a SCP Redmond Hotel and a Best Western
Plus.
“Redmond continues to show strong
growth and as the community and other
economic drivers like the Redmond Air-
port and the Deschutes County Fair &
Expo Center continue to grow, the demand
for overnight stays in Redmond will grow
exponentially,” said Eric Sande, Redmond
Chamber of Commerce executive director.
Patel’s fi rm was poised to open a 105-
room Hampton Inn & Suites in Redmond
in March, near the airport, but an electrical
rooftop fi re a year ago delayed the open-
ing, Patel said. The company spent the
past seven months negotiating with insur-
ance people and investigators to make the
repairs. Water damage required the proj-
ect be stripped back to its frame. The hotel
will open next year sometime.
A second hotel in Redmond, a Holiday
Inn Express, is awaiting fi nancing, which
has been diffi cult to obtain with COVID-
19 related closures and restrictions, Patel
said. That property, which is next to the
Hampton Inn off U.S. Highway 97, will
have 100 rooms.
“With the brands we’re investing in, we
feel long term will be good,” Patel said.
“The feasibility studies seem strong and
that we’ll perform pretty well long term.
“Travel is bottlenecked. We feel pretty
confi dent for 2022. These are the markets
that people are thinking for outdoor vaca-
tions. COVID-19 is increasing travel to
outdoor places like this.”
Construction has begun on the parking
lot improvements at the Pine Ridge Inn in
Bend. Sometime in 2022 construction will
begin on 36 luxury condos, Patel said. Fol-
lowing the ground breaking on the condos,
Patel hopes to begin construction on a 115-
room Hyatt House Hotel and an Autograph
Marriott in 2024.
Wealth Hospitality has built about 70
hotels from the ground up, said Patel.
Right now there are about 36 projects
underway.
Eastern Oregon man survives attack from bear
By JAYSON JACOBY
Baker City Herald
Noah Beckner barely had time to recog-
nize the animal as a black bear before it was
swatting a claw-tipped paw at his head.
He ducked just in time.
The paw, as Beckner puts it, “nicked” his
face.
Beckner, 19, who lives in Sumpter, said
the encounter with the bear in his front
yard, late on Thanksgiving, left him with
scratches on his cheek and above one eye,
among other injuries.
During a phone interview on Monday,
Beckner said the knuckle of the middle fi n-
ger on his right hand, the one he used to
punch the bear in the eye, was still sore.
So was his shoulder, where the bear
briefl y bit him.
Beckner said he was wearing multiple
layers of clothing, and the bear’s teeth didn’t
penetrate his skin.
The incident happened about 11 p.m. on
Thanksgiving, and Beckner said a relative
drove him to Saint Alphonsus Medical Cen-
ter in Baker City.
He was treated in the emergency room
and released.
Beckner, who has lived in Sumpter for
about a year and a half, said he’s convinced
the bear felt cornered when it initially tried
to fl ee and ran into a shed near his front door.
“It didn’t want to fi ght me — it just
wanted to leave,” Beckner said. “It tried to
defend itself, and once it realized it could get
away it did.”
Brian Ratliff , district wildlife biologist at
the Oregon Department of Fish and Wild-
life offi ce in Baker City, said he interviewed
Beckner about the episode.
Based on Beckner’s description, and in
particular that the bear fl ed as soon as it no
longer was confi ned by the shed, Ratliff said
he hasn’t set up any traps in Sumpter to try
to capture the bear.
Ratliff said he would have taken a diff er-
ent approach if it looked as though the bear
had intentionally attacked Beckner.
“It’s unfortunate that it happened but the
bear didn’t seek (Beckner) out and attack
him, and it didn’t come back,” Ratliff said.
“It was trying to get away.”
Ratliff said the Sumpter incident is the
fi rst case of a bear injuring a person that he’s
been aware of during his 16½ years working
for state Fish and Wildlife in Baker County.
Ratliff said he planned to notify the
Sumpter City Council about the incident,
and to remind city offi cials about the need
to urge residents to not keep food sources,
including coolers or refrigerators, as well as
trash, outdoors in places easily accessible to
bears.
Ratliff said he will continue to monitor
the situation in Sumpter.
“My biggest concern is that this bear is
going to choose not to den up,” he said.
Ratliff said Beckner described the bear as
very skinny — Beckner said that he could
see the animal’s ribs — which suggests that
the bear isn’t in condition to hibernate.
Bears aren’t uncommon in Sumpter.
The historic gold mining town, popula-
tion 200, is in the midst of a ponderosa pine
forest about 27 miles west of Baker City.
During the late summer and fall of 2017,
state Fish and Wildlife offi cials trapped and
killed three bears in or near Sumpter.
During that period, a Sumpter resi-
dent shot and injured a bear on his front
porch. The same bear later entered a home
in Sawmill Gulch near Sumpter through an
unlatched door.
That bear was one of the three that state
Fish and Wildlife employees trapped and
killed.
Ratliff said he’s had only a couple reports
of bears in Sumpter this year.
“It’s nothing like the level that we had a
few years back,” he said.
Beckner said he’s seen bears several
times in Sumpter, including near his home
on Ibex Street, up the hill and about three
blocks east of Mill Street, the town’s main
thoroughfare.
“Bears are constantly walking through
Sumpter, every night,” he said.
But Beckner had no reason to think about
bears when he walked out his front door in
the last hour of Thanksgiving.
He didn’t hear anything — he was just
going outside.
The bear was about 5 to 6 feet away.
“I’ve seen a fair amount of bears, and I
recognized it immediately,” Beckner said.
The bear turned and ran, but its route was
blocked by a shed that’s just outside the front
door.
Then it spun and ran toward Beckner.
“It slashed at my face but I moved out of
the way and it just nicked me,” he said.
The bear then stood on its hind legs.
Beckner, who is about 5-foot-9, said the
bear was slightly taller than he is.
He said he “wrestled for a little bit” with
the bear, during which the bear briefl y bit his
shoulder.
Beckner said he then punched the bear.
He said the bear backed up slightly and,
once it realized its path was not blocked by
the shed, it ran down the hill.
“I never saw it again after that,” he said.
Beckner estimated the incident lasted 45
seconds or so.
Although the bear was emaciated, Beck-
ner, who has competed in wrestling and
grappled with opponents up to 250 pounds,
said he’s “never felt a human so strong as
that.”
He said he understands that leaving food
or trash in accessible places can entice bears,
and he strives to avoid such situations on his
property.
Beckner said he thinks he was simply
unlucky, and the incident didn’t make him
more fearful of bears.
“If it had not been for the fact that it got
cornered it wouldn’t have attacked me,” he
said.
Noah Beckner
Noah Beckner sustained wounds to his face
when he was attacked by a black bear outside
his Sumpter home on Thanksgiving.
Come Celebrate the
Holidays at the Liberty!
A Cello Nutcracker
Friday, December 17
7:00 pm
Six brilliant cellists from the 45th Parallel Universe
Orchestra present this holiday family-favorite
Downtown Astoria’s historic Liberty Theatre was made for music, dance,
theatre, readings, film, comedy, children’s programs – and the holidays!
1203 Commercial Street | Astoria, OR 97103 | 503.325.5922 | www.libertyastoria.org