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ADDRESS: 2630 N Lombard St.
YEAR BUILT: 1985
SQUARE FOOTAGE: 3,380
MARKET VALUE: $1.63 million
OWNER: Codoco Inc.
HOW LONG IT’S BEEN EMPTY: 3½ years
WHY IT’S EMPTY: COVID and retirement.
The cannon at Tom’s Pizza and Sports Bar fired its last salvo shortly before the pandemic shut down Portland in March 2020.
Today, the only sign of life at Tom’s spacious lot—20,000 square feet—fronting a thriving strip of North Lombard is a hulking orange excavator, its bucket poised to knock the building down.
Prior to the pandemic, owner Julie Cody began a renovation of the Arbor Lodge hangout (not to be confused with Tom’s Bar at the corner of Southeast Division Street and César E. Chávez Boulevard).
Cody and her late husband, Tom, opened their place in 1995, converting a former Skippers seafood restaurant into a place that focused on big pizzas, burgers and wings.
“It was my husband’s dream,” Cody says. Over the years, Tom’s big-screen TVs attracted hordes of sports junkies—it was Portland’s home turf for Washington State University and University of Iowa football fans—and employed and served students from the nearby University of Portland.
Tom’s built a reputation for value. “Our pizzas were large and inexpensive compared to others,” Cody says.
Game days were raucous. “I got a cannon that shot off confetti,” Cody recalls. “We’d put the color of teams in the cannon and when they’d score…boom!”
Like many sports fans who live nearby, Rhett Lawrence rues Tom’s demise.
“It was a great little neighborhood bar to go watch a football game. Good food and good people,” Lawrence says. “Now we are left without any place like it in North Portland.”
As COVID settled in, Cody’s contractor began work, replacing the bar’s aging exterior with new bricks. But when the pandemic dragged on, Cody, 77, began to feel the appeal of retirement. None of her children wanted to take over.
After vandals repeatedly targeted the empty building, Cody decided to demolish it rather than reopen. “It was a sad day when we decided to shut down for good,” she says.
What’s next for the property? Cody says she isn’t sure, although nearby bus and light-rail lines make it attractive for housing. “For now,” she says, “I’m just going to hold on to the property.” NIGEL JAQUISS.
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.