Sheltered Nook

Sheltered Nook Found Financing with Help from SBDC

After hosting traveling cyclists in their Bay City home for several years, Dee and Mark Harguth decided they enjoyed entertaining so much they wanted to build tiny cabins for tourists to stay in.

In 2016, they opened Sheltered Nook on Tillamook Bay, which features six 385-square-foot tiny homes. The “micro-resort” includes a disc golf course, chickens and ducks, a communal fire pit, lawn games and more.

When the business was still a vision, Dee and Mark went to the SBDC, where an adviser helped them write a business plan.

After a bank backed out on some of the funding it had promised for Sheltered Nook, the SBDC jumped in and helped them acquire a loan through the Tillamook Economic Development Committee, Mark said.

“That’s what saved the project,” he said. “We started with a plot of land and without the SBDC we wouldn’t be here.”

They worked with city officials to obtain a conditional use permit. Then they started building their cabins, which cater to cyclists, hikers, kayakers, fishermen and other outdoor adventurers.

“We’re living a dream,” Dee said. “We’re making a village where people can come and be themselves.”