PORTLAND, Ore. — Blood-stained walls cover a historic Southwest Portland storefront. It’s just one of the many vacant buildings downtown struggling to get off the market.
The Charles F. Berg building on Southwest Broadway and Southwest Alder Street once stood out for its avant-garde design and pure gold façade. Now, it’s the latest side effect of the drug and homelessness crisis plaguing Portland. Squatters broke in and took over the 20,000 square-foot space.
“They were living here for a couple of weeks before we noticed,” said Denise Brohoski, owner of Commercial Real Estate Northwest and the broker behind the listing. Brohoski took a KGW crew through the building to show the damage and destruction caused by the squatters.
The basement was hit the hardest.
“So, this room was completely cleaned and empty. The entire building was completely spotless, ready for tours and showings, but they were obviously doing drugs throughout,” she said, gesturing to piles of dirty clothes, leftover drug paraphernalia, old food and feces — just some of the destruction scattered throughout the four-story building.
“You can see each of them kind of chose a bedroom,” she said, referring to the empty offices.
PHOTOS: Historic downtown Portland building vandalized
The building has been on the market for a few years. The current owner purchased it back in 2019. He’s asking for $3.75 million.
“We've got a 30% vacancy rate. It changes these buildings, in that no one's here to take care of them. I feel empathy for the building owner — he has already lost a million on this and he's probably going to lose another million before it's all said and done,” said Brohoski.
Repairing all the damage will be costly as well.
“I've never had a commercial property that's been broken into and lived in by people that were on drugs,” she said of her 18 years selling real estate in downtown Portland. "It’s not a safe environment to be in downtown right now, and it's hard to attract buyers and tenants into this area."
The smell of urine inside the building was so strong, one could almost taste it. Given the state of the building, they’re hiring a biohazard team to clean it.
Brohoski pointed out a loaded syringe needle on the second floor laying on the ground of another office-turned bedroom.
Late last month, Portland police raided the building at the request of the property owner and arrested nine people for trespassing and outstanding warrants. Police also seized body armor, a bandolier of bullets and a stolen wallet during the search.
Brohoski remained cautious as she walked through the building.
“It makes me afraid that somebody's still in here,” she said while trying to open a locked door. “It's a big building and there are doors that are locked in here that I can't get into and I don't know why they are.”
On the third floor, squatters removed copper pipes from the water heater, causing flooding that damaged the second-floor ceiling tiles.
Through all the destruction, Brohoski fights to find a silver lining in a crisis bleeding its way through Portland.
“I can talk about the history of this building all day long. I can talk about the history of downtown and how vibrant it was and how it's changed and it will change again it will get better," she said. "That it is an opportunistic market right now and it really is the time to buy right now — but other than that there's no smoke and mirrors, it just is what it is.”
The building was swept again Wednesday, and a locksmith came out to repair the broken locks.