Thunderbird Hotel is Multnomah County's Biggest Property-Tax Delinquent

By ANTHONY MACUK
ALARMING: The five-alarm Thunderbird Hotel blaze Sept. 2 made headlines, but grass fires outnumbered commercial fires 3-to-1 in Portland last year.

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Howard Dietrich's Thunderbird Hotel, which burned to the ground on Hayden Island in 2012, is the biggest property tax delinquent in Multnomah County, with $720,000 overdue.

The county's top 10 scofflaws owe a combined total of just under $2.5 million in unpaid taxes.

The debts are cumulative: Most of the scofflaws have been ignoring their tax bills for at least two years, and a few have been letting the fees build for at least five years.

In second with $348,500 owed: the Ross Island Sand & Gravel Co., owned by Portland Tribune publisher Robert Pamplin Jr.

Other notable offenders include the Linnton Plywood Association, Oregon Pacific Properties and the Tzantarmas family, who own controversial Lents nightclub the New Copper Penny.  

Here's the Multnomah County list of the top 10 delinquents, and how much they're currently in arrears.

1. Thunderbird Hotel LLC: $719,905.33
2. Ross Island Sand & Gravel Co.: $348,571.38
3. Linnton Plywood Association: $320,019.93
4. Lindquist Development Co.: $253,188.64
5. Oregon Pacific: $238,753.28
6. Fountain Village Development: $145,563.31
7. Elliott N. Quinn: $132,668.82
8. Grand Lodge I. O. O. F.: $111,346.79
9. Tzantarmas Properties LLC: $103,292.39
10. Greenway Properties LLC: $96,327.18

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