A Bridgetown Bites reader emailed me the following observation about the Dairy Queen (DQ) on SE Division and 55th: “It’s been years since hearing any word on the empty corner lot … yesterday I noticed that preliminary work had been done to level the plot and some new (uninformative) warning tape/signs had gone up.” I’ve got an update.
Going To the Dairy Queen Source
Learning more about the timeline of this build was in the front of my mind, so I went to the source: DQ itself. I emailed them and got a response from Fred Braden, the Executive Director of Dairy Queen of the Pacific Northwest. And he was kind enough to share a timeline with me: “We hope to begin construction in January and completion is scheduled for June.”
Here’s the full plan drawing of the building exterior. Click to enlarge.
And here is where they are at in real time, as of the writing of this article:
Some Articles and Some History of This Dairy Queen
Our reader also linked to the Southeast Examiner article on the DQ, which was published back in 2019. While reading it I was reminded of the well-written article by Francesca “Frankie” Silverstein of The Franklin Post (Franklin High School’s student news site), published in December 2023. A commenter recently says, and I imagine in an exasperated tone, “Is this still happening? The lot is still empty with no signs of construction anytime soon.”
The SE Examiner article indicated they were to open in early 2020. Of course, that didn’t happen. Apparently they ran into asbestos issues in 2019. I also learned that this location was one of the first Dairy Queens to open in Oregon.
It was a walk-up, too, which is somewhat uncommon these days. The incoming building does not look like it will have walk-up access; it will keep a drive-thru. As you can see previously, there was no inside seating, but there will be in the new building. Below is a Google Street View of the DQ when it was a walk-up:
This little building, of course, was demolished and the new DQ will go up just to the west on this piece of property. Here is a plan from 2019 of the site layout. You can see where the new building will be situated. Click to enlarge.
Back in 2010, The Oregonian published an article called “Portland’s Dairy Queen on Southeast Division Street going strong after 41 years.” You can read about the origins of this DQ there—I believe what was in there before was a place called “Candy’s.”
The Geology of This Location
In the Infiltration Testing documents, the geotechnical firm included this, which I found interesting:
“Based on available geologic mapping of the area, and review of local well and boring logs, the site is underlain by approximately 225 feet of Pleistocene catastrophic flood deposits originating from glacial outburst floods of Lake Missoula.
“The Pleistocene Missoula Lake catastrophic flood deposits were produced by the periodic failure of glacial ice dams, which impounded Lake Missoula between 18,000 to 15,000 years ago. Floodwaters raged through eastern Washington and through the Columbia River Gorge. Near Rainier, Oregon, the river channel was restricted, causing floodwaters to back up the Willamette Valley as far as Eugene.
“Floodwaters in the Portland area were as much as 400 feet deep, leaving only the tops of the tallest hills dry. The flood deposits are typically split into three different faces; the coarse-grained facies, the fine- grained faces, and the channel facies. Fine-grained Missoula flood deposits (Mff) are mapped in the vicinity of the site, which typically consist of clays, silts and fine grained sands.”
Quite a bit of geologic history under a fast food outlet.
Grill & Chill? What’s That?
The Grill & Chill is a style of Dairy Queen that seems to be a popular one in Oregon. From the DQ website: “The restaurant features modern open-air dining, separate “Grill” & “Chill” sections, comfortable booths, large tables, warm lighting, and music.” This will be a two-story building on a 20,000 square foot lot.
I expect the students at Franklin High School and Atkinson Elementary School will be happy to know there is still life in this project. And, of course, local DQ fans. Here’s to an ease of adherence to the current construction plans.
Dairy Queen [projected opening June 2025]
5605 SE Division Street, Portland
Dairy Queen website
Meg Cotner
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WW did an article last year about the franchise’s interesting history. It seems the franchise has switched hands several times since the original owners retired, but everyone seems intent on keeping the lot a Dairy Queen.
https://www.wweek.com/news/chasing-ghosts/2023/06/28/chasing-ghosts-what-happened-to-the-division-dairy-queen/
My wife went to Franklin and has fond memories of that DQ–heck, even as a couple we could visit when we lived off division prior to the pandemic. This was very helpful and now I know everything there is to know about the new DQ going in, you went above and beyond in researching and it shows!