The long-vacant Custom House downtown finally has a new owner! One of Oregon’s largest real estate companies, PREM Group, snagged the historic building on the North Park Blocks for $2.5 million after a heated auction wrapped up this week.
The Daily Journal of Commerce reports that the PREM group is planning to use the Custom House for meeting rooms and also as an “incubation space for nonprofits.” That could be exciting—there’s a couple large buildings in town that offer flexible, relatively cheap, subdivided space for little nonprofits.
The Custom House has been somewhat of a burden on the federal government, which has been trying to sell the behemoth for about six years. Last year, the Department of Education gave the Custom House to a local private school for free. But the school eventually backed out of the deal that would have required $8-10 million in repair work to bring the Custom House up to earthquake and disability standards.
Your DJC link points to a story on OPB’s website about biennial vs. annual Legislative sessions and the ballot measure seeking to change it.
I was hoping this would sell to an eccentric billionaire who would fight crime from the extensive network of shanghai tunnels beneath the edifice. Unfortunately a few of my investments went sour last year.