A6 • Friday, July 15, 2022 | Seaside Signal | SeasideSignal.com
Khan Properties previews plans at new corporate office
By R.J. MARX
Seaside Signal
Khan Properties opened a new
corporate office along U.S. High-
way 101, with plans in the work
which could bring transformations
to south Seaside.
“We are in the final stages,”
Masudur Khan said at the July 1
office Seaside Chamber of Com-
merce ribbon-cutting at the new
office.
“Everything is going forward,”
Khan said. “We are working behind
the scenes every day and night.”
In January Khan Properties pur-
chased Bagels by the Sea for $1.2
million from Sea Star Associates’
Kathryn and Tracey Johnson.
Other properties owned and
managed by Khan Properties
include the business develop-
ment office at 400 N. Holladay,
the former Pizza Hut building at
470 S. Roosevelt Dr. and the Gil-
bert Block Building, purchased in
October for $3.1 million. Alexan-
dre Gilbert rebuilt the four-block
Gilbert District at the intersec-
tion of Broadway and Holladay
Drive after Seaside’s fire in 1912
destroyed most of the city’s down-
town. The Gilbert Block Building
was completed in 1914.
Design and feasibility studies
are underway, Khan said.
At Holladay and Avenue C, the
group is developing Mint House, a
31-unit short- and long-term stay
rental unit.
“You can rent for one day, you
can rent for 30 days or you can for
a year,” Khan said.
The Dreamcatcher develop-
ment, south of Avenue U on the
east side of U.S. Highway 101, will
offer long-term one- and two-bed-
room apartment rentals. “We are
working with ODOT to get to the
final stage,” he said.
Details of the River Run, at
1000 S. Holladay, are yet to be
determined.
“The River Run is on hold,”
he said. “We are working there to
determine the best case scenario
for the city. We started 12 years
ago and we have grown. Now we
feel that we have the responsibil-
ity for not only taking care of our
company, also for the community
and the need, and everything has to
be its mission, how we can be sig-
nificant to others.”
R.J. Marx
Masudur Khan in front of the new office of Khan Properties.
R.J. Marx
Council President Steve Wright announced his bid for
Seaside mayor.
Wright: Sees housing
as top challenge
Continued from Page A1
R.J. Marx
A Seaside Public Works Department team removes sections of the mural on Broadway for repair.
Mural: ‘A great story of our history’
Continued from Page A1
The mural also includes
historic images of Tos-
tum, headman of the Clat-
sop in the mid-1800s, and
Joe Scovell, chief of the
Nehalem.
“The next step is we’re
going to do a little clean-
ing and sort of preparation
and packaging of the exist-
ing metal that’s housed in
the tribal offices in Seaside,”
Todd Lawson, an artist,
architect and tribe descen-
dant, said.
Sixteen of the 4-foot-
by-10-foot panels will be
shipped to Seattle for resto-
ration and then repaired and
restored in Lawson’s studio.
Work to repair the mural
will be done by Seat-
tle-based artist Jeff Mihalyo.
“He’s a Renaissance
man,” Lawson said. “Super
interesting, super talented.
You give him something,
he will recreate it exactly if
need be.”
Tribal members will
clean the panels with soap
and water to remove corro-
sion before Mihalyo begins
work.
“We want to do it really
gently,” Lawson said. “It’s
got a lot of residue from the
salty air coast there.”
The first step will be to
clean “almost like the baby
ducks that get in the oil
spills,” Lawson said, using
dishwashing
detergent,
some warm water and micro
cloths.
Most of the mural will
survive, he said, with five
damaged spots “surgically
removed and restored,” he
said. “The real attempt is to
do as little damage or intru-
sion as possible.”
When complete, the
mural will be scanned to
provide a digital blueprint
for future repairs.
“We’ll be able to pull
those out as high-defini-
tion scans with the origi-
nal piece,” Lawson said. “If
somebody did have to rec-
reate it, it would be done
as close to the original as
possible.”
When the work is com-
‘IT’S A GREAT OPPORTUNITY TO
TELL A BUNCH OF DIFFERENT
STORIES. THAT’S WHAT IS SO
EXCITING ABOUT IT. I THINK THAT’S
WHY BOTH THE CITY AND THE
VISITORS ASSOCIATION GAVE US
THE MONEY. IT TELLS US THE STORY
OF THE ORIGINAL INHABITANTS,
SHOWS HOW MY ANCESTORS LIVED
AND WORKED ALONG THE COAST.
THIS MURAL TELLS A GREAT STORY
OF OUR HISTORY.’
Todd Lawson, an artist, architect and tribe descendant
plete, the Seaside Pub-
lic Works Department will
return to return the mural
to Broadway near Holladay,
with the assistance of Ace
Hardware, which will add
mounting bolts.
Seaside High School
teachers Bill Westerholm
and Kriste York, along with
students in the Clatsop-Ne-
halem tribal history class,
will add a QR code to link
visitors to the tribe’s website
and historical reference.
Lawson said he antic-
ipates work will be com-
pleted in August, with an
unveiling in late August or
September.
“It’s a great opportunity
to tell a bunch of differ-
ent stories,” Lawson said.
“That’s what is so excit-
ing about it. I think that’s
why both the city and the
visitors association gave
us the money. It tells us
the story of the original
inhabitants, shows how
my ancestors lived and
worked along the coast.
This mural tells a great
story of our history.”
R.J. Marx
The mural along Broadway
before it was damaged by a
crash in November.
“I’ve been a councilor
now for five years and coun-
cil president for the last
year and a half and work-
ing closely with Jay,” he
said. “And when he said
he wasn’t running again, it
seemed like a natural step.
Want to keep some kind of
consistency and leadership?
You know, we’ll have at least
two new city councilors, my
district and Dana’s (Phillips),
and we need to have some
kind of continuity through
the process, especially with
all the new department heads
and city manager.”
At the top of his city to-do
list is creating more housing,
Wright said.
“Our housing task force
has come up with a lot of
good ideas,” he said. “The
county came out with a
list of areas in Seaside the
county owns. We’re well in
the process of getting them
to transfer that land to the
city. My plan right now is to
make it some kind of either
low-income or affordable
housing.”
To address homeless-
ness, he seeks to partner with
“somebody that’s good at it,”
he said, like Clatsop Com-
munity Action or Helping
Hands Reentry Outreach.
“We need to be just the
partners to facilitate that,” he
said. “I’ll tell you that kind of
thing is underway now. It’s
not necessarily public yet.
We’re working on it. Some-
thing will come out pretty
soon.”
Wright said he hopes to
preserve and maintain the
land across from the high
school along the estuary,
with talks underway.
Transportation projects
remain a high priority, he
said, with improvements
from Broadway south. “That
is going to happen,” he said.
“The money’s been iden-
tified and the contracts are
supposed to be open for bid
later this month.”
Work on repairing the
bridge at Avenue S east
of U.S. Highway 101 is
included in the budget, he
said.
Bridges at Avenue U and
Avenue G, likely to collapse
in the event of a Cascadia
Subduction Zone earthquake
and tsunami are two of the
other big concerns. Wright
said he has received assur-
ances at the state and fed-
eral level that they will con-
tinue to search for resiliency
funds.
Wright gives Barber high
marks as mayor. “I think
he’s done a great job,” he
said. “He’s remained lev-
el-headed and reasonable.
And those are all things that
I want to emulate.”