On Sept. 28, this former restaurant off I-5 and Santiam Highway looked like this.
One of these years, the site of the former “Original Breakfast” restaurant in Albany may again hold some kind of business. But don’t hold your breath.
The building at 3225 Santiam Hwy. S.E. has been closed since January 2020, when the breakfast restaurant shut down. Since April 2022, it has been owned by a limited liability company with addresses in Portland and Coburg.
In the summer of 2022, somebody was exploring the possibility of developing the 1.5-acre property for a Chick-Fil-A restaurant with seating for 98 and a dual drive-through lane.
The proponent pursued this for a year or so. But neighbors and ODOT raised concerns about traffic, and there was a zoning problem with a sliver of the property, a separate tax lot. Nothing came of a chicken restaurant there.
On a bike ride last weekend, I stopped at the site and found nothing had changed. Later, checking the online files of the city building and planning departments, I came across a case number for that address from this past May. The entry said:
“Remove the vacant building, and build a 4500 sf convenience store with about 70-80 ft wide canopy and 8 fuel dispensers. Provide 8-10 EV charging stations, and a single lane, tunnel car wash with drive-through lane.”
What happened with that proposal?
“The case at 3225 Santiam SE was only a pre-application,” said David Martineau, the manager of current planning in the Albany Community Development Department. “We have not had further communication with the applicant.”
On the records of the Linn County assessor, the property has an estimated real market value of just over a million dollars and an assessed value for tax purposes of $628,180. Even though the vacant building has generated no income for nearly six years, property taxes are fully paid up. The tax bill last fall was $12,502.
Back in 2016, an entry in Linn County’s online assessment report for the property said:
“Went to city and found that wastewater is a major problem and the back of the lot cannot be developed without significant cost. In addn, there is a problem with run-off and drainage. Enough of an issue that the property may not be able to be redeveloped if it were destroyed.”
So the building and parking lot sit there with a fence around them, waiting for an idea that works. (hh)
There are no patrons or employees, but the no-trespass warning sign is still there.
I’ve always wondered why Denny’s left that spot only to build again across the freeway. A Denny’s sign next to a freeway is always an attraction. Did they leave because some of these problems started way back then?
I don’t remember Denny’s ever being there. Are you sure it was Denny’s? It was apple trees when I was younger and then something breakfast place after that I don’t remember the name but I know it wasn’t Denny’s
Yes, it was a Denny’s in 1972. I met my future wife there.
Someone should turn it into a Cat Cafe in conjunction with Safe Haven and otger non profits in the area. If I had the funding, time, energy and support, I would LOVE to be a part of that!
Cat Cafe is in the works for Albany. It’s still in the planning stage.
Why the heck would that corner need 3 stations in a row. That makes no sense whatsoever.
Because it’s a junction of I-5 & Hwy 20?
I think they should put an IKEA there.
“and there was a zoning problem with a sliver of the property, a separate tax lot.”
If I remember correctly from another article you wrote when it was discussed using that ‘sliver’ (to the east of the building) for employee parking is that it is zoned for ‘residential’ and the City wasn’t going to budge. And there there was also the issue that ODOT wanted big bucks to do an ‘impact’ study on the added traffic that a business would bring.
So the building as been sitting empty for the last five years and will continue to deteriorate (along with the parking lot) until it reaches a point where the City condemns and it ends up on a land fill. And pretty sure no one is going to want to build any kind of housing on that ‘sliver’ so either the City needs to get off it’s butt and buy it and keep it as a green space or rezone for commercial use…like an employee parking lot with some trees along Airport Road.