HASSO HERING

On March 13, the flag atop the Eagles Lodge in Albany looked as though it had seen better days.

The Albany lodge of the Fraternal Order of Eagles, a much-used downtown venue for more than half a century, has been closed for some time and its future is uncertain.

My riverfront bike rides take me past the lodge on the corner of Broadalbin Street and Water Avenue several times a week, and until recently I usually saw people walking in or out, or standing outside for a smoke. Not lately, though.

On March 13, I stopped there, tried the door and found it locked. “The Aerie is closed,” said a sign taped to the door. (That’s Aerie 2255 of the Fraternal Order of Eagles, a nationwide charitable organization with headquarters in Grove City, Ohio.)

“It’s closed, and it seems like it may be permanently,” one of the aerie’s members told me in an email. “A small group of us have some ideas for the building, but national is probably going to let it go.”

The lodge building, at 127 N.W. Broadalbin St., sits on two tax lots. Linn County tax records available online give construction dates of 1950 and 1968.

The county records show an estimated market value of $413,310 for one tax lot and $570,760 for the other, but as a charitable organization the property is exempt from real estate taxes.

Albany’s urban renewal district, CARA, at one time explored buying the property, which the district’s “retail refinement plan” of 2012 envisioned as an ideal site for downtown parking, perhaps even a parking structure.

But when the lodge building was on the market for $950,000 in 2018, CARA did not pursue a purchase. The following year, a trustee of the Eagles told the CARA advisory board the lodge had gained members and the building was no longer for sale.

Now, Eugene-based Obie Companies has an option to buy three city-owned parking lots on either side of the Eagles lodge in order to build apartments there. The time period to exercise the option won’t start until the city council adopts a program for “multiple unit property tax exemptions” or MUPTE, which the council has not yet done.

Since getting the option on Albany’s riverfront, Obie has launched an ambitious MUPTE-eligible project in Corvallis. I asked the company whether this changed its Albany plans, but my e-mailed question got no reply.

Any future development agreement with Obie would likely require the company to come up with a parking solution along that section of Water Avenue. If Obie follows through, CARA’s downtown plan of 2012 might provide a clue where that parking solution could be built. (hh)

I stopped by the Eagles’ Albany lodge on a bike ride this week.

The door of the Eagles lodge at 127 Broadalbin St. N.W. on March 13, 2025.