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- ADDRESS: 9900 SE Washington St.
- YEAR BUILT: 1971
- SQUARE FOOTAGE: 156,620
- MARKET VALUE: $48.2 million
- OWNER: Rhino Holdings Marketplace 205 LLC
- HOW LONG IT’S BEEN EMPTY: 2 years
- WHY IT’S EMPTY: Tenants aren’t happy.
Earlier this month, WW devoted its cover story to examining the fate of Portland’s most famous zombie mall, Lloyd Center. It’s been repurposed as a hub for Portland’s burgeoning DIY scene after its owners slashed tenants’ rent.
Unfortunately, the situation at its East Portland counterpart, Mall 205, is less inspiring.
Mall 205 does not appear at first glance to be vacant. It has thriving big box stores at both ends: Home Depot and Target.
In between, however, is no-man’s land. Tenants fled, leaving behind decaying signs, torn-up walls and exposed drywall. The interior doors are boarded up. Those outside are padlocked.
But not all of them. The mall’s last remaining interior tenant, Oregon DMV, has remained open through it all: a shining light amid dusty, long-abandoned storefronts.
This state of affairs, however, has drawbacks. Mainly: the mall’s new owner, which took over in 2022 with plans to renovate the interior, doesn’t appear particularly eager to make East Portlanders’ trip to their local DMV a happy one.
The AC has been on the fritz. During last week’s heat wave, the DMV was forced to close as temperatures rose 10 degrees higher than the already-sweltering outdoors.
On a recent afternoon, the state employee behind the DMV’s information desk said the AC had been fixed. “But the bathroom still isn’t great,” he noted.
He’s right. The room, with a single, Spartan stall, has a sign saying “out of order.” Nonetheless, the door was open, and DMV patrons were using it.
“A lot of folks complain online,” the clerk said, “but it’s really not the DMV’s fault.”
The state says the mall’s owner, Nevada-based Rhino Investments Group, which purchased the mall for $43.2 million in 2022 and promised to lure back tenants, is responsible for maintenance.
Leif Running, a retired engineer, discovered the substandard restroom, which was out of order at the time, on a visit to the DMV with his wife. He complained to his state representative, Tawna Sanchez (D-North and Northeast Portland), whose office responded with a statement from the Oregon Department of Transportation on July 9, blaming the mall’s owners.
The state has been “working for years to get the mall to take the necessary maintenance actions, which extend beyond just the external restroom, to provide a habitable office for staff and customers,” it said. Despite limited improvements to the restrooms, “these efforts have yet to yield the necessary results.”
Andrea Chiapella, a spokeswoman for the state’s Department of Administrative Services, which manages the lease, acknowledged the ongoing maintenance issues.
“The air conditioning continues to be a challenge,” Chiapella says. The mall is relying on temporary units to help lower temps.
Rhino CEO Sanjiv Chopra said he was unaware of any problems. The building’s property manager did not respond to requests for comment.
For Running, the saga of the DMV restroom is an indication of larger problems.
“I sympathize with state government when they deal with really hard problems, like mental health,” Running says. “But I don’t understand why they can’t deal with things that should be pretty straightforward, like AC and restrooms.”