Like rubberneckers at a car crash, gawkers flock to the Viewpoint Inn.
Some inch close to the cliff at the edge of the property and gaze at the Columbia River, 1,100 feet below.
Twilight groupies make the pilgrimage to see where pivotal scenes from the 2008 cult vampire flick were shot.
Others come to inspect the damage from a July fire that left the 87-year-old inn a charred ruin.
And
everybody who visits the Viewpoint now witnesses something else: a
larger-than-life photo of inn owner Geoff Thompson, his bodybuilder’s
physique naked except for a strategically placed banner.
Above Thompson’s head
on the photo are the words “Small Business Crucified,” and across his
midsection, the banner reads, “By the Obama Administration.”
The Christ metaphor suits Thompson’s worldview.
“It’s been rough here,” Thompson says. “But what I’ve gone through has made me an amazing human being.”
The crucifixion image is unsettling to neighbors in the unincorporated east Multnomah County hamlet of Corbett.
LARGER THAN LIFE: Thompson's crucifixion picture.
IMAGE: James Rexroad
“It’s appalling,” says Eric Lichtenthaler, a contractor who lives about a half mile from the inn.
More unsettling to
some locals is the amount of money—more than $3.2 million—that Thompson
owes creditors, former employees and dozens of disappointed brides and
grooms.
“They
crucified themselves,” Lichtenthaler says of Thompson and partner
Angelo Simione. “When you don’t pay your bills, that’s your fault.”
The
story of the Viewpoint Inn is more than just another small business
saga. It’s also a story of one man’s obsession and how he persuaded
those responsible for protecting the Columbia River Gorge to bend
federal and local laws for his benefit.
Thompson, 50, describes himself as a “gay, three times bankrupt, in jail twice, recovering alcoholic.”
Despite his blemished
résumé, Thompson persuaded the Columbia River Gorge Commission and
Multnomah County to let him do something that had never been done—to
operate a commercial business in a historic property in the Columbia
Gorge National Scenic Area.
With
help from an unlikely collection of allies, including conservative
property rights advocates and state Treasurer Ted Wheeler, Thompson
reopened the inn on Memorial Day 2007, after a three-year land-use
battle that left him deeply in debt.
Today,
hundreds of creditors are out millions of dollars, the inn is roofless,
and a bankruptcy trustee has wrested Thompson’s dream from him.
People take different lessons from the Viewpoint Inn’s literal and financial collapse.
Michael
Lang, conservation director for the environmental group Friends of the
Columbia Gorge, says the county and the Gorge Commission should never
have trusted Thompson, let alone changed policy at his behest.
Matt
Wand, the attorney for three creditors, says Thompson’s ability to
dodge his bills shows how the justice system fails honest
businesspeople.
Thompson has a different take.
He says he’s an
honorable man whose dream cratered when policymakers from Obama to Gov.
John Kitzhaber failed to extend small businesses like his the same
lifeline they gave to Wall Street, automakers and AIG.
Worst of all, he says, opposition from Friends of the Columbia Gorge put him in a financial hole he could never escape.
“I take 100 percent responsibility for everything that happened at the inn,” Thompson says today.
“But these people [Friends of the Gorge] have taken pleasure in destroying lives—and many more than just mine.”
My wife and I got married at the inn in 2007. While we had a wonderful ceremony on a beautiful day, Geoff and and some members of his staff were less than friendly, to say the least. The bartender was downright hostile to many guests, and the evening was capped off by Geoff screaming profanities at the driver of the bus we hired to transport our guests back to Portland. Following the wedding I spent nearly six months and countless phone calls trying to get our deposit money back (a couple thousand bucks). Since the general manager position was a revolving door, any given week I got a different person who was overwhelmed by calls from creditors like myself. We finally worked out a payment plan and I got my money back (although one of the checks bounced the first time). I suppose I'm particularly fortunate out of his group of creditors, since I actually was made whole. But I've never received the kind of run around from a business that I got from Geoff and his staff at the Viewpoint.
let's be reasonable folks: Thompson should look up the word "delusional". It applies to him. The project, aka View Point Inn, is, under his control, dead. He needs to get a new obsession (i.e body building, injecting steroids, perfecting his back stroke, etc.,) East Multnomah County has had, over the years, any number of scam artists. He is just another in a long and tedious list.
The creditors will ultimately get 5 or 6 cents on the dollar, if anything. They need to write this all off as a bad debt. Insurance? There is no insurance. The creditors should have checked and rechecked to make sure fire insurance premiums were up to date and the work they lent money for was done or underway.
Take away Thompson's obsessive/compulsive disorder and hubris and all you have is a failed project. The Gorge has been here for thousands upon thousands of years. Thompson? 50. The View Point Inn? 80-90?. Comes and goes..the Gorge is here to stay.
Sure the Gorge needs to have more business going on to attract people. People need places to stay and places to grab a bite to eat. It's a nice idea to restore historically significant projects but at what expense? The VPI is just a building. How really significant was it?
The are plenty of other "good views" where people can get married up in the Gorge. There is little point or percentage ressurecting this financial and symbolic monstrosity. Just let it die. Something else will come along to fill the need, create a few jobs and allow for enjoyment of the Gorge...Thompson is just not the one to open, own, restore, or rebuild one. The guy has been tested. I wouldn't let him walk my dog. He isn't good business: just because he lured some greenhorns into lending him money, and didn't take any money out as he claims, doesn't mean he is good at business...just the opposite. Part of being good at business knows when you need to cut your losses and move on. This is one of those times...
Having lived just up the road from the "inn" for almost 10 years I find the sign most offensive. It ought to read "small business crucified, by terrible and abhorrent business practices". The man is flat out a terrible business person with no charisma nor sense of what it means to operate in the hospitality industry. The fact that he blames the govermant for his trouble is beyond ludacris and bordering on delusional.
First off the correct spelling of the inn is The View Point Inn not the Viewpoint Inn. Eric Lichtenthaler and Claudia Curran, both quoted in this ariticle, were not mentioned as two of the 11 radical enviromentalist members of Friends of the Gorge that did everything in their power to stop the inn from opening. Curran says they didn't mind the inn opening - hogwash - they were freaked out when the Columbia River Gorge Commission piggy backed on OUR plan amendment to include their agenda to protect ALL historic properties, and THEN freaked out FOG tried to scale it back to just the inn. Also, the Gorge Commission voted no and then retracted it only when they realized they HAD to let us through to fulfill their agenda. Duh! Michael Lang of Friends of the Gorge should be asked what happened to the town of Bridal Veil. FOG along with Multnomah County razed the historic town down to the primoridal ooze from which it came - that's how much they care about history. You are wrong as to why we came here to open the inn. The Gorge Commission had passed a Plan Amendment allowing properties like the historic inn to hold commercial events and it was scheduled to go in effect only months after our arrival in 2003. Surprise! Friends of the Gorge and Multnomah County once again stopped the saving of history and appealed it at the Federal level = nothing can be done for years until it's sorted out. We had to go another route as a result. AND it was to save and restore the inn not just make money - though as a business one hopes to do that to do the other. The real story the liberal rag Willamette Week is afraid to take on is the radical enviromentalist's strangle hold on Oregon and business here. That insane battle with the Columbia River Gorge Commission, Multnomah County, U.S. Forest Service, and deep pocketed Friends of the Gorge. It was a financial nightmare that really was the eventual cause of the fall. When you are drained of all your money fighting government how do you open a business and save history?! Ted Wheeler should be ashamed of his quotes about our business acumen. He knows what we went through with FOG and he knows how the government effed us over trying to get opened. Shame on you Ted! I suppose his hopes for Governor are governing his inability to stand up for us now and say what's true. And then there are those eviromentalist campaign donations. I am not whining. The Willamette Week had a golden opportunity to uncover and disclose the Machiavellian machinations of Oregon government and the radical enviromentalists that are destroying small business and Oregon's economy. Instead a middle of the road bad, bad Geoff Thompson regurgitation rag slap. No Puliter Prize for this one!
My wife and I got married at the inn in 2007. While we had a wonderful ceremony on a beautiful day, Geoff and and some members of his staff were less than friendly, to say the least. The bartender was downright hostile to many guests, and the evening was capped off by Geoff screaming profanities at the driver of the bus we hired to transport our guests back to Portland. Following the wedding I spent nearly six months and countless phone calls trying to get our deposit money back (a couple thousand bucks). Since the general manager position was a revolving door, any given week I got a different person who was overwhelmed by calls from creditors like myself. We finally worked out a payment plan and I got my money back (although one of the checks bounced the first time). I suppose I'm particularly fortunate out of his group of creditors, since I actually was made whole. But I've never received the kind of run around from a business that I got from Geoff and his staff at the Viewpoint.
let's be reasonable folks: Thompson should look up the word "delusional". It applies to him. The project, aka View Point Inn, is, under his control, dead. He needs to get a new obsession (i.e body building, injecting steroids, perfecting his back stroke, etc.,) East Multnomah County has had, over the years, any number of scam artists. He is just another in a long and tedious list.
The creditors will ultimately get 5 or 6 cents on the dollar, if anything. They need to write this all off as a bad debt. Insurance? There is no insurance. The creditors should have checked and rechecked to make sure fire insurance premiums were up to date and the work they lent money for was done or underway.
Take away Thompson's obsessive/compulsive disorder and hubris and all you have is a failed project. The Gorge has been here for thousands upon thousands of years. Thompson? 50. The View Point Inn? 80-90?. Comes and goes..the Gorge is here to stay.
Sure the Gorge needs to have more business going on to attract people. People need places to stay and places to grab a bite to eat. It's a nice idea to restore historically significant projects but at what expense? The VPI is just a building. How really significant was it?
The are plenty of other "good views" where people can get married up in the Gorge. There is little point or percentage ressurecting this financial and symbolic monstrosity. Just let it die. Something else will come along to fill the need, create a few jobs and allow for enjoyment of the Gorge...Thompson is just not the one to open, own, restore, or rebuild one. The guy has been tested. I wouldn't let him walk my dog. He isn't good business: just because he lured some greenhorns into lending him money, and didn't take any money out as he claims, doesn't mean he is good at business...just the opposite. Part of being good at business knows when you need to cut your losses and move on. This is one of those times...
Having lived just up the road from the "inn" for almost 10 years I find the sign most offensive. It ought to read "small business crucified, by terrible and abhorrent business practices". The man is flat out a terrible business person with no charisma nor sense of what it means to operate in the hospitality industry. The fact that he blames the govermant for his trouble is beyond ludacris and bordering on delusional.
First off the correct spelling of the inn is The View Point Inn not the Viewpoint Inn. Eric Lichtenthaler and Claudia Curran, both quoted in this ariticle, were not mentioned as two of the 11 radical enviromentalist members of Friends of the Gorge that did everything in their power to stop the inn from opening. Curran says they didn't mind the inn opening - hogwash - they were freaked out when the Columbia River Gorge Commission piggy backed on OUR plan amendment to include their agenda to protect ALL historic properties, and THEN freaked out FOG tried to scale it back to just the inn. Also, the Gorge Commission voted no and then retracted it only when they realized they HAD to let us through to fulfill their agenda. Duh! Michael Lang of Friends of the Gorge should be asked what happened to the town of Bridal Veil. FOG along with Multnomah County razed the historic town down to the primoridal ooze from which it came - that's how much they care about history. You are wrong as to why we came here to open the inn. The Gorge Commission had passed a Plan Amendment allowing properties like the historic inn to hold commercial events and it was scheduled to go in effect only months after our arrival in 2003. Surprise! Friends of the Gorge and Multnomah County once again stopped the saving of history and appealed it at the Federal level = nothing can be done for years until it's sorted out. We had to go another route as a result. AND it was to save and restore the inn not just make money - though as a business one hopes to do that to do the other. The real story the liberal rag Willamette Week is afraid to take on is the radical enviromentalist's strangle hold on Oregon and business here. That insane battle with the Columbia River Gorge Commission, Multnomah County, U.S. Forest Service, and deep pocketed Friends of the Gorge. It was a financial nightmare that really was the eventual cause of the fall. When you are drained of all your money fighting government how do you open a business and save history?! Ted Wheeler should be ashamed of his quotes about our business acumen. He knows what we went through with FOG and he knows how the government effed us over trying to get opened. Shame on you Ted! I suppose his hopes for Governor are governing his inability to stand up for us now and say what's true. And then there are those eviromentalist campaign donations. I am not whining. The Willamette Week had a golden opportunity to uncover and disclose the Machiavellian machinations of Oregon government and the radical enviromentalists that are destroying small business and Oregon's economy. Instead a middle of the road bad, bad Geoff Thompson regurgitation rag slap. No Puliter Prize for this one!
What businessperson/landowner doesn't maintain fire insurance?
A "brilliant" one.