Skip to main content
2738 NE ALBERTA ST
- YEAR BUILT: 1917
- SQUARE FOOTAGE: 4,748 (before it was torn down)
- MARKET VALUE: $1.4 million
- OWNER: DJE Building LLC
- HOW LONG IT STOOD EMPTY: 10 years
- WHEN WE WROTE ABOUT IT: Aug. 17, 2022
WHY WE WROTE ABOUT IT: The two-story brick relic with lovely metal arches along the roof once held the dining room of Al Forno Ferruzza, but the owner let it turn into a ruin. We wrote about it in August 2022. Two months later, it started dropping bricks onto the sidewalk. The city labeled it a “dangerous building” soon after. Public records showed that the property was owned by a woman named Erzsebet Eppley. Reached by phone after the bricks fell, Eppley said the building was owned by “a child” and that she was just the custodian. Either way, the city said it was on Eppley to clean the place up. For two years, it stood empty, with a fence that forced pedestrians walking along Alberta into the busy street so they wouldn’t get beaned by falling bricks. During that time, the Bureau of Development Services lost patience and ordered Eppley to either repair or demolish the building. Eppley chose repair, but ran into delays, she told WW in December 2023, caused by “labor shortages, money shortages,” and “conflicts of interest.” BDS began looking for a contractor to demolish it, which would have cost Eppley more in civil penalties, a BDS spokesman told WW at the time.
WHAT’S CHANGED: The Portland City Council, fed up with the number of derelict buildings around town, including the infamous Gordon’s Fireplace wreck (see below), approved Eppley’s building for foreclosure and planned to auction it in September. But Eppley sold it in July to an entity called DJE Building LLC for $377,620, according to county records, thereby averting the auction. DJE Building LLC was set up by Eppley, state records show. She didn’t return messages seeking comment. In December, a wrecking crew showed up and began taking down the building. By Friday, Jan. 3, it was reduced to one story. A coda to this tale: The house just south of the building—also long abandoned and also controlled by Eppley—is boarded up. It, too, changed hands recently. It’s now owned by an entity called Tillamook Holdings LLC. That entity, state records show, is controlled by Eppley.