TRADING PLACES Roadside Attraction

Slabtown has transformed—except for this giant shed.

ADDRESS: 2169 NW Thurman St.

YEAR BUILT: 1948

SQUARE FOOTAGE: 9,600 square feet

MARKET VALUE: $5.9 million

OWNER: Thurman Associates LLC

HOW LONG IT’S BEEN EMPTY: At least 12 years

WHY IT’S EMPTY: A bad break-in

Tucked between Northwest Thurman Street and the newest Slabtown apartment towers sits a two-story metal industrial building covered in graffiti tags that are nearly impossible to decipher.

The only recent activity on the lot, according to Lisa Freeman, a co-owner of the Freakybuttrue Peculiarium and Museum just down the street, was a large homeless encampment where the building abuts U.S. Highway 30. “It got bigger and bigger. We got broken into a few times,” Freeman says.

Originally built in the late 1940s by the local company Carson Oil, the building was used as a garage for truck repairs and later for oil storage, according to records the original owners filed with the city of Portland before expanding the building.

Eventually, Carson sold the land to Con-way Properties Inc.—a subsidiary of the trucking company that helped transform a swath of Slabtown in the past three decades from a heavily industrial area to a tall, desirable neighborhood with coffee shops and pricey apartments with exposed-brick façades. In 2012, Con-way created the “Con-way Masterplan” to establish a framework for the area’s redevelopment before selling parcels to individual developers. The building at 2169 NW Thurman St. falls within the plan’s boundaries.

It’s uncertain what the building was used for over the past few decades—but according to the current property manager, Mark Hush, it was used for a mix of paper and bicycle storage. (He thinks it even housed a workout room.) Hush says that the previous owners had a number of interested buyers for the land, including a hotel group and a number of apartment developers, but no plans ever panned out.

In June 2021, Con-way sold the property for $2.5 million to Thurman Associates, an LLC whose sole listed member is Thomas Garnier. Garnier is a local businessman who, according to state records, owns an industrial shredder company in Wilsonville, a vineyard in Mosier along the Columbia River, and a number of real estate properties scattered throughout the Portland metro area.

Hush, his property manager, says Garnier still wants to rent out or sell the place. Hush blames their inability to rent it on a break-in roughly a year ago and a homeless camp against the back garage door that made finding tenants a challenge.

“ We were marketing it for lease, but there was a breakin with some homeless people that trashed the inside of the building,” Hush says. “Someone had broken into the north-facing door and then graffiti’d the inside of the building, ripped out drywall and just trashed it on the inside.”

The last valuation shows the building has lost value since the break-in. Current assessments of the building put it at $10,000, but the value of the land itself has skyrocketed to more than $5 million.

Hush says the owners hired private security and affixed bars and locks to the exterior doors in order to prevent future break-ins. Freeman says she sees private security on the lot roughly once a day.

Hush and the owner have looked into developing the land for use as a hotel, but given cratering occupancy rates of many hotels in Portland since the pandemic, that’s a gamble for developers. Meanwhile, new graffiti emerges weekly on the building’s walls. A few jars and cartons also litter the area. JAKE MOORE.

Every week, WW examines one mysteriously vacant property in the city of Portland, explains why it’s empty, and considers what might arrive there next. Send addresses to newstips@wweek.com.

One man enters Oregon State Hospital, another leaves.

STATE OF OREGON V. MICHAEL EDGAR BIVINS

Bivins, a freelance journalist who contributed stories to WW, was arrested last May and charged with a series of hate crimes, including scrawling “Die Juden” in yellow paint on the wall of Congregation Beth Israel and lighting a fire at the Muslim Community Center of Portland. Police allege he told a reporter, “Jewish people deserve the hate that goes toward them; all religions are stupid.”

Case History

Bivins underwent a profound change in personality the year before his arrest, people close to him told WW last year (“What Happened to Mike Bivins,” May 18, 2022). Although court records show Bivins had no reported history of mental illness, he underwent a mental health evaluation shortly after being booked in jail. His case went forward anyway after his defense attorney told the court that Bivins was capable of aiding in his own defense, court records show.

Recent Developments

Over the past year, Bivins has sent Multnomah County Presiding Judge Judith Matarazzo a series of meandering and increasingly indecipherable letters from jail. His trial date was repeatedly postponed until last week, when Judge Nan Waller found Bivins too mentally ill to stand trial and ordered him sent to Oregon State Hospital to be “restored to competency.” He’ll join the beleaguered hospital’s waitlist, whose length (46 people, as of April) has been the subject of extensive, ongoing civil rights litigation.

STATE OF OREGON V. PISEAT CHEY THOUEN

In response to that lengthening waitlist, a federal judge brokered a compromise with advocates in which Oregon State Hospital would begin releasing patients early. One of those patients was Thouen, who was arrested in early 2021 after he threatened a woman with a homemade spear. He would spend the next year and half in the state hospital before it forcibly ejected him in October, still too mentally ill to face trial.

Case History

Over the past several decades, Thouen’s mental state has deteriorated, his sister told WW last year (“No Man’s Land,” Nov. 2, 2022). Thouen rejected mental health treatment, hoarded knives, and ultimately threatened his family before ending up on the street. In October, after OSH kicked him out, Washington County Circuit Judge Kathleen Proctor ordered Thouen sent to Providence St. Vincent Medical Center to be civilly committed. But community hospitals don’t want to warehouse patients like Thouen, and doctors typically won’t accept them unless they present an immediate danger. Thouen was soon thrown out.

Recent Developments

Thouen’s charges weren’t forgotten, however. In December, prosecutors refiled them, and Thouen was arrested in February. This time, mental illness wasn’t an issue, says Thouen’s defense attorney, Tyler Beach. “I would talk to him in depth with open-ended questions,” Beach says, “and I had no concerns that he didn’t understand what we were doing.” Thouen took a plea deal, which amounted to two weeks behind bars at the Coffee Creek Intake Center after time served. He’s now begun two years of probation and is required to routinely report to a probation officer and participate in mental health treatment. That treatment, however, likely won’t include a bed. The county said there weren’t any residential treatment beds available last October. What the county can offer people with severe mental illness, says Washington County probation and parole services manager Chris Chandler, “is an emphasis on close coordination with institutions and community mental health services to support progress in treatment, medication management, and to provide a prompt response to deteriorating stability.” LUCAS MANFIELD.