Old Town’s about to be bereft of nightly karaoke for the first time in nearly 15 years.
The Boiler Room, one of the neighborhood’s most stalwart enterprises—and hands-down among the city’s best karaoke spots—is going to shut its doors September 20, almost exactly 15 years after it opened its doors, the bar announced on Facebook this evening.
And it’s leaving for a textbook reason in boom-time Portland: A new owner has decided it doesn’t want the karaoke mainstay around, and is simply declining to renew the lease. Not long ago, the building that houses the Boiler Room, at 228 NW Davis, was purchased by a San Francisco based real estate group, Swift Real Estate Partners, city records show.
“The Boiler Room’s last night will be September 20th,” the bar’s former general manager, Mike Reed, posted on Facebook tonight. “Not because of problems or city regulators, not because of customer service issues, fights, poor management, or even lack of revenue. The Boiler Room is closing because apparently the new Californian investment group / new landlord projects more revenue with a potential ‘Starbucks’ type of business or another daytime use space in the corner unit.”
Full disclosure: I was a KJ at the Boiler Room for five years, and I will miss this bar. It can be insufferable on a busy weekend, but it has been one of the friendliest, most welcoming, and best-sounding spots to sing in town since well before I lived here. Entire generations of Portland comics sharpened their material at its Monday night open mic nights—among the longest running on the West Coast. It was a karaoke-dork-filled satellite of harmony in Old Town before the neighborhood became the “entertainment district” it’s labeled as today.
And it is still profitable, and on fine terms with city officials (the city’s liquor licensing program coordinator, Mike Boyer, was among the many people offering condolences this evening). According to Reed, the property’s new owners only revealed this week that there wouldn’t be an option to renew the bar’s lease.
“Up until a week ago,” Reed said tonight, “we thought we were going to be open 20 more years here.”
SAN FRANCISCO??!? Did you say SAN FRANCISO, Dirk? Pushed out by SAN FRANCISCO property owners? They’re SAN FRANCISCO based?
“San Francisco” is the Merc’s favorite clickbait phrase these days.
Not only that, but Dirk is in the process of legally changing his name to Dirk SanfranHate.
By the way, what happened to my icon? First up-and-down-voting goes away, and now my commenter icon. Not sure how much more disrespect I’m willing to take.
They pushed us out of the building as well. We’d been there for three years, had negotiated new terms with the old owner who kept pushing off having us actually execute the lease (clearly while he was negotiation with swift), and kicked is out with less than three weeks notice. They wouldn’t negotiate the lease rate at all and told us they’d rather keep it empty. They even told me they don’t plan on holding the Merchant Hotel building for long. It’s all about the flip for their investor pool.
Yes, please tell us again how Californians aren’t ruining Portland. How this new influx of money and ideas is making it better. I’ll wait. *crickets*
Your icon was pushed out by Californians Todd, no room for your individuality in new Portland.
There’s no good reason why Dirk should report that the San Francisco real estate company that bought the building is from San Francisco. In the future, Dirk should withhold any and all facts that might cause offense to Todd. Offending Todd is bad journalism.
The SF property owners should have set up a New York-based LLC to buy the property – then nobody would be complaining.