The Jolly Roger Will Become Affordable Housing

After much speculation about what would become of Buckman dive bar the Jolly Roger, WW has confirmed it will become an affordable housing complex helmed by recovery and low-income housing nonprofit Central City Concern. The property was bulldozed this fall and is currently an empty lot.

According to city records, CCC purchased the 1927 building for $1.75 million on July 10, saving a quarter million dollars off its list price of $2 million.

“CCC owns the property, and we’re in the very early stages of planning,” says organization spokeswoman Laura Recko.

So far, the nonprofit’s intent is to develop it as housing for people earning 50% to 80% of the area median income, Recko says. Central City Concern is Portland’s largest social services nonprofit, helping people find housing, jobs, recovery and health care.

“This fits in very well with our mission and new strategic plan as we’re diversifying our housing portfolio,” Recko says.

This diversification made headlines as recently as two weeks ago, when Multnomah County revealed CCC’s plans to purchase Lolo Pass Hotel on East Burnside Street and turn it into a 60-bed drug and alcohol treatment facility.

The realtors’ ad for the Jolly Roger touted 12,500 square feet of property, a 2,200-square-foot restaurant, and paved parking for 20 vehicles, all zoned for commercial mixed use in a “robust and desirable” neighborhood. It’s just a block north of the city’s most celebrated food cart pod, Cartopia.

The bar had a long history in town. As WW reported two years ago in a profile of the dive’s last days, the Jolly Roger opened in 1962 on Southeast Powell Boulevard, launched by restaurateur Constantin “Guss” Dussin. Early advertisements depicted a buccaneer mascot and promises of “free chocolate pieces of eight for junior pirates finishing their plates.”

The bar moved (along with its iconic pirate signage) to Southeast 12th Avenue and Madison Street in the early ’90s, according to its most recent co-owner, Rob Jackson.

“We got destroyed during all the conflicts,” Jackson told WW in 2022, referring to his decision to sell amid pandemic civic unrest. “No matter how much we tried to fix the building, people kept hurting it, and the police were unavailable to help. That just helped us make the decision.”

The Jolly Roger at John’s Landing, a neighborhood sports bar on Southwest Kelly Avenue, remains open.

Of the landmark sign—which WW once called “a majestic freestanding pylon sign shaped like a ship’s mast at a height no longer sanctioned”—Recko shares the sad news that it was trashed. It was too large to be used in the building or anywhere else, she says.

“Efforts were made to see if any signage, restoration companies or collectors were interested in it, to no avail.”