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LEE PERLMAN
THE MID-COUNTY MEMO
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| David Walmer, Rodeway Inn general manager, tells fellow Parkrose Business Association members at a recent meeting of the association about clean-up efforts underway at his motel, a former neighborhood trouble spot. |
| MEMO PHOTO: TIM CURRAN |
“The police spent a lot of time here arresting our guests,” Pastor and General Manager David Walmer told the Parkrose Business Association at its monthly luncheon in October, during the “member moment” portion of the PBA’s agenda, about the property at 9727 N.E. Sandy Blvd., formerly the Travelodge Motel and a Best Western Flamingo Motel before that. “Now the police are still here, but they’re hanging out in our Sacred Grounds Coffee Shop.”
The church is in the process of renovating the rooms.
“We started by stripping them right down to the sheet rock,” Walmer told the Memo. “Everything is new,” Walmer adds. “We’ve done 35 and have 85 to go. The ones we’ve done match comparable rooms at the Sheraton in quality, at about half the price.” The rates range from $89 to $199 a night.
The Sacred Grounds Coffee Shop serves a variety of coffee drinks. Solid food offerings are limited to pastries and a few sandwiches, although Walmer says they may upgrade the menu slightly. Primarily, “It’s a place for folks in the community to come and hang out,” he says. For this reason, they have no plans to offer drive-through facilities.
The church uses a meeting space called the Haven Room for its services, as well as small weekend concerts that “give kids a place to go.” There is adequate room for the congregation of 150. As to the future, Walmer says, “We don’t ever intend to become a mega-church.” Instead, they might send intern pastors out to create satellite congregations that “once started, take on a life of their own.”
Aside from paying for the upgrade of the property, the revenue stream from the motel will be used to support worthy causes in the community, such as projects of the Salvation Army, the Union Gospel Mission’s Teen Challenge program or the expansion of My Father’s House, a family shelter in Gresham. “We don’t need to reinvent the wheel,” Walmer says. “If someone else is already doing good work, we want to support them instead of trying to duplicate their work.” In the same spirit, they have offered support to the PBA in their efforts to clean up an adjacent traffic island, and to the Parkrose Neighborhood Association for projects it conceives.
“Parkrose has some crime problems, and the highest rate of domestic violence in the city,” Walmer says. “We think the church needs to be out in the community offering support.” He adds, “We’re not a knight on a white horse. We realize that a lot of good people have been working hard here for a long time. We’d like to offer our support.”
Originally a spin-off of a larger Foursquare Church in Gresham, Walmer’s congregation began in rented space at Northeast 100th Avenue and Glisan Street. The congregation purchased the motel with the aid of the parent church. “It was available, it has a great location, and it had great potential because it was so run down,” Walmer says.
“Our church has done well in the suburbs, but not so well in the inner city,” Walmer said. “If we succeed, it could be a new model for others to follow.”
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