Local Tao Berman Increases Stay Options in White Salmon
White Salmon is fast becoming not only a place for delicious food, wine, beer, and adventure but also a base camp destination for a weekend or more extended stay in the Columbia River Gorge. But with only a 22-room Inn available in Downtown White Salmon and a handful of Airbnb’s, it can be challenging to find a place to spend the night. Local Tao Berman is filling this need and investing in Downtown White Salmon. Having more stay options in White Salmon creates more lodging taxes for the White Salmon Community, keeps more tourism spending dollars in White Salmon (restaurants, retail, services), and is essential overall to the economic vitality of White Salmon.
Meet Tao Berman
Tao Berman’s previous career as a professional kayaker introduced Tao to White Salmon. Tao would compete at the Gorge Games in the Columbia River Gorge every summer. The Gorge Games, which began in 1994, attracted world-class athletes to the Columbia River Gorge to compete in events like windsurfing, kiteboarding, mountain biking, adventure racing, and kayaking. “The week that I would spend here competing each year was always a highlight for me, so after winning the pre-world championships and retiring from freestyle kayaking, I could choose a place to live other than where I spent each winter training,” says Tao. Since Tao still needed to be able to train kayaking year-round and also be close to an international airport, White Salmon was the obvious choice for Tao’s move to White Salmon in 2004.
Tao Berman and Jamie Carbone at White Salmon Baking Co
Tao’s real estate investments have ranged from storage unit facilities, apartment complexes, mixed-use commercial, duplexes, and fourplexes for the previous ten years. Recently Tao completed the construction of a 19-unit apartment building in downtown White Salmon. Eight of the lodging options are short-term rentals designed for vacation or work stays, including two penthouse options with rooftop decks and views of Mt Hood and the Columbia River.
New Boutique Hotel
Tao’s excitement for developing real estate in his community of White Salmon is evident. “When done right, it can be an artistic expression of an architect’s ability to sculpture what I like to call usable art and also provide something our community needs,” says Tao.
Tao has recently broken ground on his next project: a 30-unit boutique hotel. The new boutique hotel will have a rooftop deck that can be used to host weddings and a smaller retail space at street level. The new hotel is expected to finish the first phase of development around the end of 2022. Investing in a project of this size during a pandemic and in the Columbia River Gorge is no easy task. “As you can imagine, with all the supply chain issues, this is an incredibly challenging and expensive time to develop, but I strongly believe in what I like to call geographic investment which is to invest my capital in my community of White Salmon instead of simply leaving it in the markets where there would be no local benefit,” explains Tao.
I love our community and think there is no better place to raise our two children. I feel privileged to live here, and I enjoy being able to create a hotel and other short-term lodging options so that people who live outside our community can also experience what all of us who live here get to enjoy every day!
