River resort going condo.

Byline: Randi Bjornstad The Register-Guard

McKENZIE BRIDGE - Developer Steve McGhehey has three framing crews standing by, ready to start reconstruction of the Log Cabin Inn, the centerpiece of a historic resort on the McKenzie River that burned to the ground 18 months ago.

While the news no doubt will please many former guests with fond memories of their own stays at the century-old inn - itself the replacement of the original 1880s stagestop that burned in 1906 - the new resort definitely will not be a replica of the old.

While the rebuilt lodge will still be log-cabin style, even using some long-salvaged logs on the front face of the building, the overall development will be $11 million worth of upscale dining and reclining.

Instead of eight small guest cabins clustered around the lodge, the reconfigured resort will have 22 freestanding cabins, plus three living units on the lodge's second floor.

Many of the cabins, as well as the lodge with its restaurant, lounge, banquet room and store, will be built closer to the river than their original counterparts, McGhehey said.

Only one unit - sometimes called the Hoover Cabin, reflecting its use by long-ago President Herbert Hoover, not to mention actor Clark Gable and England's Duke of Windsor - will be original, McGhehey said.

"It's a stockade-style log cabin, and it will be decorated in the style of the 1920s to 1930s," said McGhehey, owner of Redstone Construction Services in Sisters. "It's about 800 square feet, with a fireplace in the master bedroom. It's old, but it will be like new when it's done."

His wife, interior decorator Terry McGhehey, will be in charge of the interior improvements, he said.

In the greatest departure from the resort's previous incarnation, the Hoover cabin, like all the others, will be for sale as a commercial condominium.

Prices for the condos will vary from $300,000 to about $500,000, depending on size and location.

Square footage will run from about 700 to 1,100, McGhehey said, "with at least two bathrooms, separate garages and screened porches."

Finishes will be high-end, with clear fir floors, pine walls, tile countertops and, like the Hoover cabin, an early 20th-century feel, he said.

Because of the development's commercial status - "It has to do with room tax and commercial zoning," McGhehey said - owners of the condominium units may not live in them full time and must make them available for rent.

While the structures are individually owned, the land remains in the ownership of the development group, a limited liability corporation called Diprop.

Property management also will be handled jointly, he said.

Development of the Log Cabin Inn resort will be similar to a project McGhehey already has developed just across the river.

That project, the Inn at the Bridge, has 10 units on nearly 2.25 acres and was developed under the M & C limited liability corporation, by Closen Christian Jr. and Margaret Christian of Vida, who purchased the property in 2005 for $230,000.

The feel of the Inn at the Bridge complex is similar to what people can expect at the new Log Cabin Inn resort, said McGhehey, who purchased one of the already completed condos at the Inn at the Bridge for about $260,000, according to Lane County tax records.

At the time of the Log Cabin Inn fire in late March of 2006, David and Diane Rae owned the 7-acre property. In mid-September, Diprop LLC purchased it, for $1.625 million.