While Portland metro wrings its hands over how much to invest in nanotech, other communities have been putting their eggs into different baskets -- their hotels. Surely among the most lovely experiments in economic development, grand old hotels in towns across the state are, one by one, being restored to prominence.

Baker City, Union, Condon, McMinnville, Ashland and, most recently, Astoria, now boast splendid downtown centerpieces. The hotels, established back in Oregon's pioneer days, sat in sorry states of disrepair for years before a creative eye spied grandeur through the broken beams and pigeon droppings.

The rebirths of these buildings haven't come cheaply. The tab for cleaning up Baker City's Geiser Grand a decade ago was more than $7 million; the nine-story Ashland Springs, with its Isak-Dineson-colonial-Africa ceiling fans and amazing collections of birds, shells and flora, took a cool $10 to $12 mil.

The latest to join the club is Astoria's Hotel Elliott ($4 million and counting). Still adding finishing touches as guests stream in, the Elliott has restored its Craftsman style as well as its claim to fame -- "Wonderful Beds" -- the latter, by way of king-sized mounds of 440-count Egyptian cotton, tossed with goose-down pillows and velvet duvets.

Price point? Standard room, $79. Then there's the top end: the Presidential Suite, which affords the well-heeled guest a full kitchen, grand piano and fireplace, two DVD players, eight networked computer ports, bedroom and sitting room, and a spiral staircase to the rooftop garden. Sticker: $650 per night.

In Astoria?

Well, this isn't your father's Astoria. The port town has been quietly positioning itself in recent years as a destination -- a cause Lewis and Clark haven't hurt. Something, anyway, is working: Elliott mastermind Chester Trabucco, whose company, No. 10 Sixth Street Ltd., has shouldered "98.99%" of the financial burden, reports that the hotel is on plan.

But then this is high season. If anyone wonders what could happen when Astoria's gray drizzle sets in, look at the Ashland Springs after the Oregon Shakespeare Festival season ends. "Staying power" is the key to boutique-hotel success, says Mary Arnstad, general manager of the Ashland Springs, who's working to lure off-season guests via the area's skiing, arts and crafts, and culinary opportunities.

But, too, there's a piece of the grand hotel vision that isn't about returns on the tourist dollar. A hotel's restoration, says Barbara Sidway, owner of the Geiser Grand, is a pivotal thing for a community, providing a center of activity "24/7" -- people working, delivering, eating, drinking and communing.

"A hotel is a statement of a community -- what it is, what it thinks of itself, how it feels about itself," says Sidway, whose pricing strategy ("as low as we could get away with") honors state employees' per diem of $55.

"A hotel is -- I'm trying to think of a word -- it's more meaningful than a symbol," Sidway says. "It's like the flag flying, a point of light."

Or, as Arnstad says more fundamentally: It's the tooth that completes the smile.

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Copyright 2003 Oregon Business magazine