A4 • Friday, September 24, 2021 | Seaside Signal | SeasideSignal.com
Seaside hotelier navigates pandemic uncertainty
By ETHAN MYERS
The Astorian
When Masudur Khan
came to the coast and got
involved in the hotel indus-
try, he saw a problem with
how employees were hired
and managed.
Workers were brought on
for the busy tourism season
and then laid off in the win-
ter. There was often no loy-
alty in either direction.
“I found that wasn’t the
right way to do it because
we are a team and family,”
Khan said.
As he took over Seaside
Lodging LLC and came to
oversee more than a dozen
hotels along the coast, he
made it a policy not to lay
off workers. The result was
low turnover and high reten-
tion rates for more than a
decade.
When the coronavirus
pandemic struck, many in
the hospitality industry laid
off workers. Khan said he
had to furlough around half
of his employees.
As government restric-
tions to contain the virus
lifted and hotels welcomed
back more guests, many
have reported a significant
labor shortage, which has
disrupted the recovery.
But Khan has, for the
most part, eluded that issue
and said he was able to hire
R.J. Marx
Saltline Hotel, one of the Seaside Lodging LLC properties.
back the majority of his fur-
loughed employees.
“There is a huge demand
and this is a market for the
employee,” he said. “So I
had to sit down with my
management team and say,
‘OK, look at their pay. What
are other people offering?’”
While Khan only made
slight adjustments to wages,
he added bonuses and
incentives.
“We have value in this
company and we are a good
company that offers a lot of
benefits,” he said. “We have
long-term
relationships
(with workers), but still …
we looked at that and made
some changes.”
Khan is also looking to
develop housing. Cognizant
of the housing crunch on the
coast, where workers in hos-
pitality and other service
sector jobs are often priced
out of market-rate rent-
als, he wants to help con-
struct more affordable units
downtown.
“We want to attract peo-
ple from Portland, if they
want to move over here to
work, so that we can solve
some workforce problems,”
he said. “It would not only
help solve the housing prob-
lem, it will also solve some
of the workforce problems
because we will get some
talent that will have a nicer
place to stay in new build-
ings … while also giving the
local people a place to stay.”
Khan said his workers
will get first priority on units
and a discount on price.
As occupancy rates for
hotels climb back toward
pre-pandemic levels, the
workforce remains in flux.
Hailey Hoffman/The Astorian
Masudur Khan is a Seaside hotelier.
Earlier this summer, the
American Hotel & Lodging
Association estimated that
1 in 5 hotel jobs lost during
the pandemic won’t return
by the end of the year. Many
people who are looking to
return to work are recon-
sidering hospitality or want
higher wages, better bene-
fits and flexible schedules,
according to a survey by
Joblist.
With the labor shortage,
workers who are employed
in hospitality are often
tasked with extra hours and
additional duties.
While the shortage may
not be affecting Khan’s
hotels as much as others,
as the board chairman for
the Oregon Restaurant and
Lodging Association, he
sees the impact it is having
across the state.
“It should be a prior-
ity for industry leaders like
ORLA and everybody to
bring the workforce back
and make them confident in
the hotel industry,” he said.
“We should work together
to bring them back because
it is a huge thing.”
Khan said he knows
hoteliers who cannot use
all of their rooms because
they don’t have the staffing
to properly clean them on
time.
Some have pointed to the
extended
unemployment
benefits during the pan-
demic as one reason for the
labor shortage. State econ-
omists calculated the aver-
age unemployment bene-
fit equaled about $16.75 an
hour.
But the extended benefits
expired over the Labor Day
weekend.
Considering that most
people are vaccinated and
there is a better understand-
ing of how the virus spreads,
Khan said the government is
right to end the benefits. He
expects to see an increase in
job applications in the com-
ing weeks.
Despite the uncertainty
of the pandemic and the
changing workforce, Khan
chose to move forward with
construction last year of the
65-room SaltLine Hotel in
Seaside. The hotel opened
in August 2020.
“We did a lot of work
in-house,” he said. “It was
not easy, but it was fun —
working together through
the challenge we had.
“I like when there is a
challenge and I can over-
come it.”
Out of this world: Seaside artist creates ‘spacescapes’
By ZOË BUCHLI
For Coast Weekend
Marrying science and
art is what Seaside artist
David Lehigh describes as a
challenge.
He jokingly says he hears
from people his pieces “give
them nightmares.”
“It’s not always pleas-
ant stuff I’m painting, I’m
not interested in creating
more ‘acceptable’ themes,”
Lehigh explained.
Owner of Spaceprint,
Lehigh creates large and
small-scale paintings that he
uses as a vessel to investi-
gate the environment of the
universe and how solar sys-
tems, planets and galaxies
interact with one another.
“It’s a satisfying chal-
lenge,” Lehigh said.
One of Lehigh’s recent
works is called “Coper-
nicus,”
which
Lehigh
describes as a take off on
Mars and the Milky Way as
co-joined planetary systems.
Another striking piece by
Lehigh is titled “Spacescape
XII.” This project was a
commission of Pacific Uni-
versity, inspired by scientific
principles of outer space and
the solar system.
His pieces typically range
from about 2 to 3 feet wide
and 8 to 30 feet long. The
larger pieces or multi-sec-
tioned spacescapes can be
up to 12 feet long and 76 feet
tall. There’s a process that
goes into creating his larger
pieces. Lehigh will start
with buying wood to build a
Nikki Davidson/Coast Weekend
David Lehigh uses oil paint
to create his space-inspired
art pieces.
David Lehigh
“Copernicus,” by David Lehigh, is named after the great astronomer of the 14th century.
frame. From there, he’ll pur-
chase about 10 yards of can-
vas and stretch it until it’s
ready to be painted on.
Lehigh is a mixed media
artist, and uses a combina-
tion of oil on canvas, water-
color, acrylic paint and india
ink to create his pieces.
Recently, Lehigh com-
pleted a commission for a
dining room that was a mas-
sive space. For this proj-
ect, Lehigh designed three
pieces that would fit the
allotted space and let the
customer choose.
Since much of Lehigh’s
work delves into concep-
tualizing the universe and
constellations, it’s only nat-
ural he draws inspiration
from space. In the 1960s
and 1970s when NASA
was shooting rockets into
space, Lehigh recalls won-
dering what it was like up
in the great unknown. With
limited access to telescopes
and TV programs that didn’t
frequently touch on celes-
tial concepts, he turned to
NASA for information about
space and constellations.
“Space was so fascinat-
ing to me,” Lehigh said. “It
still is.”
Early in his life, Lehigh
found a knack for drawing
and realistic painting.
“Art came to me at a very
young age,” he said. “It was
about fourth grade when I
started having an eye for
what was in front of me.”
Throughout his col-
lege career, he remembers
always being especially
interested in physics and
chemistry. From there, his
passions for art and space
and science naturally inter-
twined. He received a mas-
ter’s degree in teaching from
Pacific University in 1999.
He now not only has art on
the wall at the university, but
occasionally teaches there,
too. He has work featured
at the Ford Foundation in
New York City. He also was
accepted into the Watercolor
Society of Oregon.
When he’s not painting,
Lehigh is building his house
in Seaside, another exten-
sion of his love of construct-
ing and designing.
“I love creating,” he
said. “But it’s all about hav-
ing fun and taking on new
challenges.”
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