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- ADDRESS: 7540 NE Sandy Blvd.
- YEAR BUILT: 1940
- SQUARE FOOTAGE: 541
- MARKET VALUE: $316, 680
- OWNER: David Barbera
- HOW LONG IT’S BEEN EMPTY: Since at least 2017
- WHY IT’S EMPTY: The owner went to the beach.
The tiny building sitting on a triangular island of property between Northeast Sandy Boulevard and Beech Street in the Roseway neighborhood has never been exciting to look at. The white exterior appears to have been painted over with slightly off shades over the years; the small windows are protected by metal bars.
While it’s been vacant for at least seven years, it was home in prior decades to a rotating cast of small businesses that could fit in just 540 square feet: a family-run accounting business for nearly 30 years; a short-lived quick-key business; then a cannabis club that violated city zoning rules.
In 2014, a woman named Adelene Lindstrom purchased the building. For years, she’d operated a one-woman travel agency called “Addie’s You and I Travel” out of a small house across the street. (Its motto: “Our Service Is More Than a 7 Letter Word.”) Perhaps Lindstrom wanted to upgrade her business in a real commercial building, but it’s unclear whether she ever moved in. Lindstrom sold the building in 2017 to a real estate investor named David Barbera.
Barbera bought the building for $176,000 in 2017—twice what Lindstrom had paid three years before. It doesn’t look like he’s done much with it: He’s filed no applications for permits with the city in seven years. The only formal communications to the city about the building in that time have been complaints of trash, overgrown weeds, and the occasional harvested car part.
A manager at a granite store across Sandy says he hasn’t seen a business operate out of the building for years. “The only thing we’ve seen from time to time was someone painting the side of the building,” he said in an email. A sign currently on the building reads NV Medical Express, which business records would suggest was a cannabis business that’s no longer active. On a recent visit, a napkin tucked in the door’s metal casing reads, “I’m looking for a building. $2,000 rent. Equipment rental.” It’s signed by someone named Jasen A.
Property records show Barbera may have left Portland for good in 2023. Last October, he sold his Portland home—a mansion in Northwest—for $1.1 million. He owns a $3.8 million home in the Southern California coastal town of Del Mar.
Barbera did not respond to WW’s inquiries about his plans for the building.