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Address: 900 N Tomahawk Island Drive
Year built: 1994
Square footage: 15,900
Market value: $2,914,380
Owner: Dan Fischer
How long it’s been empty: 16 years
Why it’s empty: A faulty foundation
Dan Fischer, an Illinois lottery magnate, loves a good distressed asset.
He certainly got one when he purchased Dotty’s, a chain of dozens of lottery delis, in 2007. After Nevada regulators caught the previous owner lying, Oregon’s lottery commissioner forced the sale of the immensely profitable franchise. Fischer grabbed it for $15 million, The Oregonian reported at the time.
In 2012, Fischer struck again, purchasing an abandoned Zupan’s on Hayden Island. It’s a stone throw from Dotty’s #24, one of the state’s highest-earning lottery retailers due to its proximity to Washington, where video lotteries are outlawed (“In Luck,” WW, July 27).
The upmarket grocery store closed in 2006, just three years after its grand opening. Freezer doors wouldn’t open. Shopping carts started to mysteriously roll away on their own volition. The foundation, the owners determined, had collapsed.
Zupan’s sued the contractor and the architect for $9 million. They countersued for nonpayment, and the parties settled their legal battle in 2007. The store never reopened.
“It’s sad that we’re really not more conveniently located to serve North Portland and Vancouver,” Don Ramey, Zupan’s director of marketing, told The Portland Sentinel after the store’s closure.
But no one made the needed repairs. Five years later, Zupan’s sold the building to Fischer for just over $1.5 million.
His bargain has yet to bear fruit. Fischer tested the market in 2018, offering to sell the still-unstable building for $2.2 million, according to an advertisement on his broker’s website. Despite the building’s “attractive contemporary design” and “excellent visibility to I-5,” there have yet to be any takers.
The broker is now offering the vacant building for lease.
Russ Sheldon answered the phone at Fischer’s company, Oregon Restaurant Services Inc. His name was listed as the registered agent on the two companies that Fischer used to purchase Dotty’s and the beleaguered Zupan’s. He said he works in the warehouse.
“I don’t know what he bought it for,” Sheldon said. “It is what it is—just a building right now.”
Every week, WW examines one mysteriously vacant property in the city of Portland, explains why it’s empty, and considers what might arrive there next. Send addresses to newstips@wweek.com.