Three Portland-area real estate agents who paid $595,00 to
buy a historic but badly abused landmark in Northeast Portland will be the
latest to try reviving the 110-year-old building.
The winning bid was revealed in late January but the
apparent winner preferred to wait until the deal closed before disclosing
ownership. The registered deed lists a
limited liability company with Joseph Tran, Tony Ngo and Henry Liu as company
managers.
They purchased the former Gordon’s Fireplace Shop, a
three-story building that has been vacant since 2016 when the shop owner closed
the business and sold the building.
Subsequent plans by an earlier buyer to renovate the building for
ground-floor retail spaces and two floors of housing above collapsed apparently
because of the Covic pandemic and possibly other factors.
The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and sits at the prominent intersection of NE 33rd Ave. and
Broadway. During its long vacancy, the
building has been heavily plastered with graffiti and is viewed by many as an
eyesore. The building still retains a
large vertical Gordon’s Fireplace Shop sign at the Broadway corner.
An earlier owner had planned to remodel the upper stories into residential units and add retail spaces at the ground floor. But that plan died with the COVID pandemic. The latest buyers have not disclosed their plans
Tran and Ngo are affiliated with the Real Estate Performance
Group based in Clackamas. Tran worked
for 10 years as a pharmacist before switching to real estate 20 years ago. Liu is an agent with a different real estate
firm.
The masonry building with heavy timbers used in interior
post and beam construction was erected by the Oregon Home Builders firm in 1917,
when the nearby neighborhoods of Irvington, Laurelhurst and Alameda were
booming with new residential construction. The company president was O.K.
Jeffrey.
In 1918, Jeffrey, whose homebuilding firm was suffering
financially, converted the building to the O.K. Jeffrey Airplane Factory for the
manufacture of wood and canvas wings and pontoons for World War I military
airplanes. Its success was based on the region’s easy access to high-quality
spruce timber used in airplane manufacturing of the era. The building often was called the “airplane
factory” for decades afterward.
Oregon Home Builders eventually went bankrupt. The building was used for many years for
woodworking and retail furniture sales.
The upper stories were used for warehousing before Gordon’s Fireplace
Shop took over in 1990.
The building appears to be sound structurally, but a new
life likely will require earthquake bracing and new plumbing and mechanical
systems. Photographs posted before the
auction showed that all interior partitions had been removed, thus reducing the
need for internal demolition.
---Fred Leeson
Join Building on History's email list by writing "add me" to faroverpar463@gmail.com
.
