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- ADDRESS: 7981 SE 17th Ave.
- YEAR BUILT: 1929
- SQUARE FOOTAGE: 3,654
- MARKET VALUE: $1.3 million
- OWNER: Every Nut There Was LLC
- HOW LONG IT’S BEEN EMPTY: 3-plus years
- WHY IT’S EMPTY: Private equity leftovers
Checkerboard Pizza, the slice-focused sister establishment of Ken’s Artisan Pizza, has long beguiled critics. “Dumb name,” WW wrote in 2018. “Heavenly New Yorkish pizza dough.”
When Matt Jacobson, co-founder of Sizzle Pie, tried Checkerboard’s marinara, he was so impressed he bought the shop. But the 2021 deal didn’t turn out as hoped. A planned expansion from Checkerboard’s downtown location in Pine Street Market to a new Sellwood flagship was derailed by pandemic staffing shortages.
“I just put a pause on the project,” Jacobson says. “What’s the point of spending all this money when we can’t even staff our existing locations?”
Then in 2023, Jacobson merged Sizzle Pie with an entity affiliated with Sortis Holdings, further complicating the plan. (WW has reported extensively on the holding company’s various financial difficulties.)
Jacobson carved Checkerboard out of the deal with Sortis. But, as a result of his pared-down cash flow, Jacobson found banks unwilling to underwrite a loan to build out the new Sellwood storefront for Checkerboard.
Now, the former dance studio at the southern tip of Southeast Milwaukie Avenue is hung with “for sale” signs and surrounded by a cyclone fence. Kids have tried to light it on fire, Jacobson says. Someone defecated on the doorstep. “I hate the way it looks,” Jacobson says. “But people started doing crappy things.”
Jacobson is playing with the idea of selling the lot. Or, maybe, trying again to refurbish it.
But that’ll cost over $100,000 in various development fees alone, he estimates. “I wish the city would at least offer some sort of payment plan,” he says.
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.