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ADDRESS: 2464 SE 82nd Ave.
YEAR BUILT: 2020
SQUARE FOOTAGE: 16,392
MARKET VALUE: $3.5 million
OWNER: CSS Properties LLC
HOW LONG IT’S BEEN EMPTY: Since 2015
WHY IT’S EMPTY: Speculators
Hung Far Low and its chuckle-inducing sign were Chinatown icons for nearly a century, first in Old Town and then across the river in the Jade District. But the restaurant closed its doors for good in 2015, citing the end of its lease in a handwritten note posted on the front door.
The nondescript gray building at Southeast 82nd Avenue and Division Street was razed a few years later, and replaced with a gleaming brick-and-glass strip mall. Despite its prime location on the corner of two major thoroughfares, the $3.5 million investment has sat empty since.
The reason? Picky owners, explains real estate broker Michael Simmons.
They’ve turned down several offers to lease parts of the 16,000-square-foot building to smaller tenants, he says. Lacking “financial pressure,” he adds, they’re waiting for bigger fish.
There are other reasons, too, for them to be selective. Members of the ownership group, made up of families in Medford and Happy Valley, own other nearby restaurants, including Golden Dynasty on Southeast Foster Road. “To lease to their competition might not be the best business decision,” Simmons says.
But neighbors aren’t so happy to wait.
“It’s super frustrating,” says Duncan Hwang, a Metro councilor and director of community development at the nonprofit APANO, whose offices are in an affordable-housing complex across the street.
The intersection is the hub of the Jade District, which sits on one of Oregon’s most diverse census tracts and is now threatened by gentrification.
TriMet recently opened a brand-new express bus line down Division Street, and one down 82nd Avenue is currently being planned. Hwang says a half-billion dollars is expected to eventually be spent on the corridor.
All this investment has speculators salivating. Developers have grabbed up nearby properties, built gleaming new buildings, and then demanded rent that local businesses can’t afford.
The new strip mall, for example. And the junk lot next door, which is slated for market-rate apartments, Hwang says.
That doesn’t jibe with Hwang’s plan to build what he says will be “the most transit-rich, most affordable and most sustainable district in Portland.”
So he’s launching an effort to “land bank” neighboring properties.
APANO bought up the Canton Grill building across Division Street from Hung Far Low earlier this year using largely federal stimulus funds. There were higher bids, but the building’s owners liked APANO’s mission.
The nonprofit plans to lease out the ground floor to local businesses and build affordable housing above.
“There’s a lot of speculation happening,” Hwang says, “so we’re trying to hold on to as much as we can.”