An exterior view of the Westman Hotel in downtown Bend Wednesday morning. 7-16-25 Andy Tullis/The Bulletin

The Westman preserves 93 years of history with a modern twist

Bend’s newest hotel will feature a nod to the past as a downtown post office and a wave to the future as a  23-room boutique hotel. 

Each room is unique, some with lofts, others with fire pits. The Westman, named after Minnie Westman, the first female letter carrier west of the Mississippi, features decades old leaded glass windows and a grand stairway. 

For much of its life, the building on the corner of NW Wall Street and Franklin Avenue was a post office before it was converted for commercial use, including years as the home of the Bend Chamber of Commerce.  Just down the street is another repurposed building, McMenamins Old St. Francis School in a former Catholic schoolhouse.

Developed by Deschutes Opportunity Commercial Redevelopment LLC, the new boutique hotel preserves the classic lines of the 93-year-old old post office, but modernized. 

The new hotel, set to open as early as this fall, is a gathering place, said co-owner Gil Burgess.

“When the old post office came up for sale, we saw this as an opportunity to buy an iconic site like this,” Burgess said. “At that time we weren’t certain of what we’d do. We are not a hospitality company.”

Bend has 3,700 hotel beds and several hotels downtown. Travel and tourism generated $27.1 million in transient room tax in Central Oregon, according to Visit Central Oregon’s annual 2024 Visitor Economic Impact report. 

In Bend, hotel spending in 2024 totaled $181.3 million, according to Visit Bend. 

The Westman hotel rooms will average about $500 a night. Higher average room rates mean more transient room taxes for the city and the county, said Nate Wyeth, Visit Bend senior vice president of strategy.  

“That is beneficial for Bend because it means it’ll help drive additional taxes from visitors to the city’s general fund to support core services like police, fire and roads,” Wyeth said. “It’s great to see how the old post office is getting a new lease on life as a fun, accessible space with such deep roots.”

Renovation and restoration

The development team said it prioritized sustainability and worked to retain as much of the original structure as possible, according to the company. Flooring, bricks, concrete and windows were reused.  The building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985. 

The Deschutes Opportunity Commercial Development Co. purchased the building in 2020 for $4.3 million, according to public property records. Burgess said the limited liability company was formed with a partner who was not named. The company was formed around development of the hotel, Burgess said.

The city did not provide any incentives to the developers nor give any other special benefits for redeveloping the building, said Cyrus Mooney, city of Bend business development manager. The hotel, however, is included in the Downtown Bend Economic Improvement District and will be part of the Downtown Bend Business Association. The association did not return phone calls or emails from The Bulletin.

Preserving history

The old post office was designed on a rectangular plan totaling 17,306 square feet of enclosed space, according to the historic registry. 

“The city’s Historic Preservation code is intended to protect resources and infrastructure from our city’s past for the enjoyment and pride of our citizens, while also balancing cost and other barriers for capital investment to occur,” Mooney said. “The Westman Hotel is going to be a modern development that retains the aesthetic of old Bend. We are excited to see them come online and contribute to our vibrant downtown.”

From the start, the developers reached out to the historical society to get the history of the building, said Kelly Cannon-Miller, Deschutes County Historical Society executive director. The research enabled the developer and designers to come up with a plan to approach the interior design that preserved parts of the post office’s past, Cannon-Miller said. 

“Lots of cool historic fabric was hidden for the past three decades underneath the remodel work that divided the post office’s original lobby into smaller office space,” Cannon-Miller said. “Historical buildings quite literally ground a community in their sense of place. Without them, not only are the stories lost, but so is our sense of character.”

Bend is a community shaped by Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal programs, Cannon-Miller said. 

“There is a reason hotels in historic buildings thrive,” Cannon-Miller said. “They give visitors not only a sense of fun and uniqueness, but they also tell stories about the place they are visiting.”

The restoration of the nearby Box Factory is similar, Cannon-Mller said. McMenamins Old St. Francis School has a secret broom closet bar that is a draw for guests. 

When it opens, the lobby’s key feature is a grand staircase that was restored, Burgess said. And a lobby bar, named Minnie’s, used art deco-inspired designs. 

With each room uniquely designed, some have 16-foot ceilings, others have 10-by-5-foot windows, private patios and fire pits or mezzanine suites. The hotel is being managed by the Embarcadero Hospitality Group and is now accepting reservations. 

Burgess said that Bend  holds a special place for him. When he was younger his family would take rare camping trips to Bend that would inevitably end at the Metolius River for fishing. 

So when the old post office came on the market it seemed like a good fit, Burgess said. 

“We love Bend,” Burgess said. “The growth in Bend has been a big positive. There’s been a lot of uninspiring development for it to be such a beautiful place. We believe that Bend was ready for something that’s inspiring and something on the smaller side.”