Beaver, Oregon has about 187 people in it. That is not a rounding error or an old figure. It is roughly the population as of this year, up from 121 residents counted in the 2020 census. For a town that size, a library branch, a childcare center, and a community gym are not things you'd expect to see land in the same building at the same time. But that is exactly what is happening on the old Beaver School campus, and it is not coming from a city budget or a school district bond. It is coming from one couple who already built something similar down the road in Pacific City.
The building itself has been sitting empty for 16 years. On August 15, it opened its doors again, for one afternoon, so the town could see what happens next.
A Reunion With a Second Purpose
The event was called "Flashback to School, Beaver School Stories," a free community celebration held from 2 to 4 p.m. and co-presented with the Tillamook County Historical Society. Anyone who ever sat in a classroom there, taught a class there, or dropped a kid off at the door was invited back. The afternoon ran the way a school reunion runs: former students and teachers sharing memories, guided tours through the halls, a free scoop of ice cream, and a chance to shoot a few baskets in the old gym.
But the event had a second job. It was also the first public look at what the campus becomes next, a project called The Schoolyard Flats.
That framing matters, because a building this size does not sit vacant by accident. The former Beaver Middle School covers more than 30,000 square feet on 4.6 acres, and it needed both a use and a use case big enough to justify the cost of bringing it back to code. What's replacing the school isn't a single tenant. It's a stack of them.
What's Actually Going In
The Schoolyard Flats plan calls for roughly 30 apartment homes aimed at agricultural workers, families, seniors, and others looking for stable housing in South Tillamook County. That alone would make it a housing story. But the developers, Kevin and Katie Shluka, have designed the rest of the campus around uses that serve the whole town, not just the people who live there. According to the plans shared at the August event, the campus will include:
- A new branch of the Tillamook County Library
- A community gymnasium, reopened to public use
- A certified childcare facility
- A commercial kitchen
- Maker spaces for local entrepreneurs and artisans
- Outdoor gathering space
Put those together and you get something closer to a small civic center than an apartment complex. For a town with fewer than 200 residents, a library branch and licensed childcare in the same building is not a modest upgrade. It's infrastructure that towns many times Beaver's size still don't have locally, and it would be arriving here first.
The Same Team, a Second Time
Kevin and Katie Shluka are South Tillamook County residents, and this is not their first attempt at this exact model. They're the team behind The Kingfisher Apartments in Pacific City, a workforce housing project that was completed in 2023. That track record is the reason this plan is worth taking seriously rather than filing away as a rendering that may never get built. They've already proven the mixed-use, workforce-housing approach can get financed and finished in this county. Beaver is the second run at it, on a larger and more complicated site.
The Shlukas have described the project as an effort to honor the school's legacy while building something new for the generations that come after it. Whatever you think of that kind of language, the mechanics behind it are concrete. Housing covers part of the cost of renovating a 30,000-square-foot building. The library, gym, and childcare space don't generate rent, but they generate the kind of local support and grant eligibility that makes the whole project pencil out. That is likely why a single housing project ended up with a library branch attached to it. It is not charity. It is how the math works on a building this size in a town this small.
Where the Project Actually Stands
None of this is finished, and it's worth being precise about what stage it's at, because the difference between "planned" and "underway" matters if you live nearby and are wondering when to expect construction noise or a ribbon cutting.
As of this year, roughly half of the asbestos remediation needed at the property has been completed. The project team is working with the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality on plans for a new drain field and septic system, to be built under the old baseball field, since the whole campus needs new utility connections before anything else can happen. On the funding side, the project was recently recommended for a $100,000 grant from the Tillamook housing solutions production fund, and the Shlukas are also pursuing an agricultural workforce housing tax credit through Oregon Housing and Community Services, which would help determine how affordable the final units end up being. Private lenders are already lined up regardless of whether that credit comes through.
The timeline the developers have described has construction starting sometime next year, with apartments opening in 2028. That is a real schedule, not a placeholder, but it also means the library, the gym, and the childcare center are still a couple of years out. If you're picturing a ribbon cutting next spring, adjust that expectation. If you're picturing a building that finally has a plan after 16 years of sitting empty, that part is accurate today.
What This Actually Changes
For anyone who already lives in or around Beaver, the practical shift here is less about real estate and more about daily errands. Right now, a library card means a drive to Tillamook or another branch. Childcare in a town this size and this rural is scarce enough that most families already build their schedules around a waitlist somewhere else. A commercial kitchen and maker spaces are the kind of thing that lets someone start a small food business or a craft operation without needing to lease space in a bigger town first.
None of that is guaranteed until the building is actually finished, and Beaver has already waited 16 years for something to happen with that campus. But this is the first time in that stretch that the plan has a name, a funding source, a completed prior example in Kingfisher, and a public event where the community got to see it firsthand. That's a different kind of update than "there's a proposal." It's a project with momentum, even if the finish line is still a couple of years off.
If you grew up walking those halls, or you're raising a family in Beaver now and watching what happens to that corner of town, it's worth keeping an eye on how the DEQ approval and the tax credit decision play out over the next year. Those two pieces will tell you whether 2027 construction and a 2028 opening hold up, or slip the way big rural redevelopment projects often do.
Homes By Dylan keeps close tabs on projects like this one across Tillamook County, not because every reader is buying or selling, but because knowing what's actually changing in a place like Beaver is part of knowing the town. If you have questions about what's happening in your corner of the coast, or you're curious how a project like The Schoolyard Flats might shape the neighborhood around it, reach out to Homes By Dylan and schedule a free consultation.
