Landmark Bend hotel celebrates grand reopening

A landmark Bend hotel celebrated its grand reopening Wednesday. The Riverhouse has been a staple in the community for more than 40 years.

Rick Takach is chairman and CEO of Vesta Hospitality. The company bought the beloved property last March and began an over $10 million renovation.

“This hotel has been part of the Bend community for a long time. I think since 1974. We want everyone to experience it and enjoy it again,” Takach said at Wednesday evening’s event.

The upgrades included revamping all of the more than 200 guest rooms, moving the front desk to another building and opening a new restaurant, “Currents.”

“We thought there was a great opportunity,” Takach said. “You can’t find an asset like this anymore. You can’t find a hotel like this. So, this is what we do. We buy hotels and we put some money into them, and try to recreate what was here.”

In addition to physical changes, the former name “The Riverhouse Hotel and Convention Center” is being swapped for “Riverhouse on the Deschutes.”

“It’s a fresh new approach to what we had, and I think it represents all of the investment we’ve made into the product, team members, systems, everything that we came up with. So, we wanted something a little different,” Takach said.

He also said the makeover highlights the location, right on the river, and he sees the hotel continuing to be a community staple.

“I see this property as having a great future,” Takach said. “We’re going to continue to reinvest in the property. We’re going to continue to reinvest in the team members. We’re going to keep the menu fresh. Being right off the river it’s kind of hard to do any more. So we want to make it a place where people from all over the area and especially people from Bend can come and enjoy the river and have a great time,”