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HOW MUCH DOES HE OWE? $3.59 million
WHO’S INVOLVED: Hemstreet’s wife, Shannon ($720,000), and his company Shilo Management Corporation ($388,000) also appear on the list.
THE BACKSTORY: Twenty-five years ago, when Republicans controlled the Legislature, Hemstreet was the biggest GOP donor in Oregon politics.
Hemstreet, 73, founded the Shilo Inn hotel chain in 1974. He grew the chain to 50 locations by the turn of the century, but Shilo’s motto—”affordable excellence”—was no match for the travel shutdown after 9/11 and a long-term boycott that labor unions organized against his hotels. (Hemstreet backed a 1994 ballot measure that would have cut public employee pension benefits, and other measures unions opposed.)
In June of this year, a Multnomah County circuit judge appointed a receiver to take over what remains of Hemstreet’s empire after he failed to pay creditors. Court records described the need for the receiver to be accompanied by three Multnomah County sheriff’s deputies when he visited Shilo’s headquarters because the hotel’s general manager denied she knew where the corporate headquarters was (it was upstairs). Only after deputies went to get “one large battering ram from their van…and a separate crowbar” did staff unlock the office door.
INTERESTING DETAIL: On July 14, Hemstreet listed his 1,200-acre ranch on Montana’s Clark Fork River for $24.9 million. The 12,000-square-foot main lodge rents for $140,000 for three nights.
WHAT DOES HEMSTREET SAY? His attorney, Rahn Hostetter, did not respond to requests for comment.
WHAT THE BACK TAXES COULD BUY: At the average acquisition price of $90,000 per room, the state’s Project Turnkey could buy 400 additional hotel rooms to house people across Oregon.