10A • August 25, 2017 | Cannon Beach Gazette | cannonbeachgazette.com
Shifting gears from software to visitor care
Former Intel
engineer takes
on hotels
ready to sell in February, she
said, but let her start manag-
ing the properties in Cannon
Beach and learning the ropes.
Late last month, multi-
ple LLCs owned by Sultana,
Khan and other family friends
as investors completed the
purchase of the Simmons’ four
South County hotels. The Inn
at Haystack Rock and Blue
Gull Inn in Cannon Beach
sold for nearly $3.6 million to
SR Lodging LLC, run by Sul-
tana and Sazzadur Rahman,
with whom she and Khan
also manage other properties.
The Gilbert Inn and Inn at the
Prom sold for more than $3.9
million to Seaside Prom LLC,
run by Sultana, Khan and fam-
ily friend Bashir Mahmud.
Along with the four hotels,
Sultana now manages two
apartment complexes, com-
ing to the coast from Portland
several times a week. Despite
the travel, she said the posi-
tion is more relaxing and flex-
ible than Intel, allowing her
to spend more time with her
children.
By Edward Stratton
EO Media Group
For Taslema Sultana, a
former engineer at Intel, tak-
ing over management of four
hotels and two apartments in
Cannon Beach and Seaside
has been a relaxing step back.
Sultana, whose husband,
Masudur Kahn, runs four ho-
tels in Seaside, is part of an
ownership group that recent-
ly purchased hotels in South
County owned by Antoine and
Rocio Simmons, who has tran-
sitioned out of the local hospi-
tality industry.
Before hospitality, Sultana,
who has a Ph.D. in chemical
engineering, was a senior en-
gineer at Intel for eight years,
overseeing high-volume man-
ufacturing for the chipmaker
and helping set up a new fac-
tory.
By 2015, she had already
been thinking about starting
her own business, likely in real
estate. She founded a prop-
erty company and took over
management of an eight-unit
apartment complex in Sea-
side while pregnant with her
youngest of three daughters.
After the birth, Sultana
left on maternity leave and a
sabbatical from Intel. Upon
returning in July 2016, Sulta-
na learned she was among the
hundreds of employees being
laid off during the company’s
recent restructuring.
“It kind of expedited my
business ventures,” she said
with a laugh.
Her husband, had been in
the hotel industry for 12 years,
first as an investor and later
as an owner after buying the
Inn at Seaside in the summer
of 2009. Khan now runs four
properties in Seaside, includ-
ing the River Inn at Seaside,
City Center Motel and Coast
River Inn.
Transition
The Simmons family start-
ed their hospitality careers in
2001 with the purchase of the
Blue Gull Inn, adding the Inn
The future
COLIN MURPHEY/EO MEDIA GROUP
TOP, Taslema Sultana walks around the grounds of one of the hotels in Cannon Beach that she now manages. Sultana
recently took over management of four hotels in the area as well as other real estate properties. ABOVE LEFT, The Gil-
bert Inn is one of the hotels in Seaside and Cannon Beach that are now managed by Sultana and her husband. ABOVE
RIGHT, Several of the hotels managed by Sultana and her husband feature elaborate landscaping, including a wide variety
of flowers and other plants as well as fountains and areas to relax for patrons.
‘I really think they know what they’re doing, and they’re going to do a great job.’
Antoine Simmons
at Haystack Rock two years
later and forming the man-
agement company Haystack
Lodgings to run other hotels.
They bought the oceanfront
Inn at the Prom in 2011 and
the Gilbert Inn, a historic 1892
Victorian, in 2014.
Antoine Simmons, also a
former employee of Intel be-
fore his foray into hospitality,
said the properties in Cannon
Beach had been on the market
since last summer, as his fam-
ily sought to transition out of
the coastal hospitality indus-
try.
“It’s tough, because it’s
really about the employees,
being with them,” he said of
leaving the properties and
employees who grew to be
like family. “We’ve been with
many of them over 10 to 15
years.”
Sultana learned last sum-
mer the properties were on
the market. Simmons wasn’t
Sultana said that beside
some upgrades to the facades,
furniture and other amenities,
no big changes are coming to
any of the properties, which
are still taken care of by the
same 25 or so employees
through Haystack Lodgings.
“They know what our guests
want, and they’re really good
people,” she said.
Antoine Simmons, who
last month pulled the plug on
a proposed 48-room luxury
hotel in Seaside after receiv-
ing an offer on the property,
is developing a new 37-unit
apartment complex in the cen-
ter of Warrenton. He is also
developing another apartment
complex in Utah and a brand-
ed hotel in Sherwood.
“It just was a good fit for
both of us,” he said of his and
Rocio’s sale of the hotels. “I
really think they know what
they’re doing, and they’re go-
ing to do a great job.”
He lauded Khan’s experi-
ence in the industry, and said
he was especially pleased that
all his existing staff could be
kept on. “They’re kind of like
the new us.”
Boone, Bonamici discuss energy, environment in Cannon Beach
Appearance
at Chamber
of Commerce
breakfast
By Brenna Visser
Cannon Beach Gazette
State Rep. Deborah Boone
on Tuesday, Aug. 7, praised
a bill approved by the Leg-
islature that allows electric-
ity produced from an ocean
wave-technology test site at
Camp Rilea in Warrenton to
be used to power the site.
Boone, a strong supporter
of wave technology as renew-
able energy for the Oregon
Coast, said initial tests con-
ducted last summer showed
BRENNA VISSER/CANNON BEACH GAZETTE
State Rep. Deborah Boone speaks to Cannon Beach resi-
dents at the Chamber of Commerce, Aug. 8.
promise for future growth in
the industry.
The test site, funded by the
Oregon Wave Energy Trust,
was introduced three years
ago and faced initial skepti-
cism about impacts to crab-
bing and fishing industries, as
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well as ocean aesthetics. So
far, Boone said, she has not
been made aware of any neg-
ative environmental impacts.
“When we have a Cascadia
event, we will not have power.
We aren’t talking for three to
five weeks — we are thinking
three to five years,” Boone
said. “So we will be relying
on local energy.”
Boone, D-Cannon Beach,
and U.S. Rep. Suzanne
Bonamici, D-Oregon, dis-
cussed legislative priorities
and answered questions at the
Cannon Beach Chamber of
Commerce’s monthly com-
munity breakfast meeting.
Bonamici discussed en-
vironmental and emergency
preparedness-related bills she
had worked on this year in
Congress, including a marine
debris bill that would provide
a funding source for research
and cleanup.
The congresswoman also
celebrated the bipartisan sup-
port for legislation that would
help improve weather fore-
casts and storm warnings.
Bonamici came to Cannon
Beach to talk about local is-
sues, but also faced questions
from the audience on national
topics like immigration pol-
icy, the Paris climate agree-
ment and what it is like to be
in Congress during the Trump
administration.
The Cannon Beach City
Council voted recently on a
resolution to support the Par-
is accord, despite President
Donald Trump’s decision to
withdraw. Mayor Sam Steidel
asked Bonamici what kind
of impacts small cities could
make with resolutions like
these. “It’s been heard,” she
said, adding that any support
helps when she still spends
a significant portion of time
debating the existence of cli-
mate change with some of her
House colleagues.
Bonamici said she has
been seeing record turnout
at town hall meetings, often
filled with inquiries about
“polarization” in Washington,
D.C.
“There are concerns about
the Trump administration
on both sides of the aisle,”
Bonamici said. “But there are
still lots of bipartisan efforts
in the House.”
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