Former dance hall and roller rink in downtown Waldport is quickly demolished Thursday, developer open to “any good ideas”

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com

WALDPORT – It didn’t take long Thursday for a 91-year-old blighted building in downtown Waldport to bite the dust.

A large track hoe and debris trucks from Road & Driveway of Newport took just the morning to demolish and haul away most of the structure that had been everything from a dance hall and roller skating rink to a veterinarian’s office and college annex.

Pressured by the city to do something with the building he bought five years ago at the corner of Northwest Cedar and Spring streets, real estate investor Sung Choi of New York City had little choice but to tear it down.

After the site is completely clean, Choi told YachatsNews that he is open to ideas of what to do with the property – everything from apartments to an art gallery to a seafood restaurant.

“We’re open to any good ideas,” Choi said. “It’s a town with an incredible amount of potential.”

The building has not been occupied for at least 20 years and has long been considered “blighted” by the city of Waldport. The city began asking Choi two years ago to deal with various issues – everything from break-ins, squatters, to unpaid water bills and its dangerous condition, said city manager Dann Cutter.

“If someone is actually trying, we’ll give them the benefit of the doubt,” Cutter said of the code enforcement effort. When nothing happened in a year, the city issued Choi a notice of noncompliance last July.

That resulted in Choi hiring an engineer to inspect the building and after a visit last fall he recommended it be demolished. Michael King, a Hillsboro contractor who works for Choi, called the city two weeks ago to let it know they planned to demolish the building Thursday.

“The fact that he actually is fixing the problem is great,” Cutter said.

Open to ideas

Cutter estimated that the large lot could be much more valuable for a developer once the dilapidated structure is torn down and hauled away. Its current zoning would allow multi-family housing to be built on the property, he said. “It’s a great location,” Cutter said.

Choi, who said he has real estate investments in other parts of Lincoln County, bought the property in 2017 for $70,000. According to 2021 tax records, the property’s market value is $115,380 – down from $155,000 in 2019.

The biggest issue with any new building on the site is that it would likely have to be elevated 3-4 feet because of new federal regulations governing new or highly remodeled structures in a flood zone.

According to Waldport Heritage Museum director Colleen Nickerson, the structure was built in 1931 as a dance hall. The Waldport Tribune reported four years later that two men bought the Rustic Ballroom and turned it into the Rustic Roller Rink. It was purchased again in 1940 and reopened as the Waldport Bowling Alley, which also offered dances on Saturday nights – admission was $1 for men but free for “ladies.”

After 1960, Nickerson wrote in a history of Waldport, the building went through a series of owners including serving as an Oregon Coast College annex, a veterinarian’s office, and plumbing and florist shop.

Choi said his family immigrated to Oregon from South Korea and that his father became very prominent in the martial arts field. He graduated from Reed College and Harvard University, became a developer, owns a farm in Hillsboro, other residential and commercial property and now is a “happily retired” investor.

“You have a person who is an immigrant who landed in a perfect place and is open to any ideas that can improve a good town,” Choi said. “Most people in the world would die to live in a place like Waldport.”