Stroheckers, a forgotten building in the West Hills that was once a very popular and well-loved specialty grocery store now stands vacant. It was a big part of the Portland West Hills and people from all around the city came to shop there to buy fine wines, cheeses and many other items before these were common in grocery stores.
In 1902, Gottlieb Strohecker opened the doors to his store, Stroheckers, a high-end specialty item grocery store. They’ve been compared to similar specialty stores like Zupans, which opened in the 1970s.
Stroheckers was known around Portland for being unique and having items that most other stores didn’t have. This made it an iconic store in Portland.
In the mid-1980s, Stroheckers underwent a full store renovation that included a fine wine and liquor store, post office, pharmacy and full-scale grocery store all in one building. It was definitely a unique store for all that it had to offer, and also in a very unique location.
The store is right in the middle of a wealthy neighborhood below Council Crest on Patton Road, a road that many people pass through. Not to mention the park right next door that would host youth soccer games during the fall which brought business to Stroheckers.
In 1996, Stroheckers was bought out by Lamb’s Thriftway and continued to operate throughout
the 90s and 2000s until it was bought out again by Bales Marketplace in 2012. After it was bought out, many claimed that the store didn’t have the same charm that it used to have.
After 114 years of being in business, Stroheckers closed its doors for the final time on January 31, 2016. The liquor store below remained open for six more months until the lease ran out, and the pharmacy was moved to the east side.
Now as of 2024 the building sits vacant, the windows have boards covering them, the sidewalks are covered with moss and weeds and overall the store looks very sad, and not as full of life as it once was.
Although the true reason for its closing down wasn’t released publicly, possible reasons for its closure are thought to be an inconvenient location for people not living in the South Hills, a small parking lot that was oftentimes overcrowded when it was sports season and poor choices under the new management of Lambs and Bales and the price of their rent each month, which was speculated online to be around $40,000 a month.
Not to mention the growing competition from other high-end grocery stores in the area such as Zupans, New Seasons and Whole Foods, which have multiple locations in Portland.
The building is currently owned by a real estate developer in California, Tim Sotoodeh. In 2018, Sotoodeh was able to change the zoning to CM1 (Commercial Mixed-Use 1 base zone). This allows the building to be used as mixed commercial and residential, compared to the building’s decades-long zoning law which only allowed it to be used as a grocery store, and grocery store only.
As of now, nothing is known about the future of the building and the 1.14-acre property. There was a proposal to turn it into apartments, but it was met with heavy backlash from the community.
Many said Stroheckers was ahead of its time when fine wine and cheese weren’t a common item found in stores, and although it’s sad to see a shell of its former self, sitting empty and lonely, one can only hope that a new retail business comes in to take over its legacy.
