photo/Chris Busby

This is exactly what Parkside doesn’t need as its residents strive to shake the Portland neighborhood’s rough reputation: two abandoned buildings across the street from one another.

The derelict residential properties are on the one block of Grant Street open to two-way traffic, at Grant’s western end. The white one at 182 Grant sports the fire department’s scarlet (yellow, really) letter “V,” for vacant, and — aside from a wide-open, upper-story window — is secured against intruders, animal or otherwise. Its back side appears to be facing the street, which is rude but actually makes the dump less noticeable.

It’s the one almost directly across the street that catches your eye like an errant lemon squirt, with its stained yellow siding above dirty wooden shingles, and weathered plywood covering every first-floor door and window. The 5 has fallen off (or been stolen), but the courts know it’s 185 Grant. There’s also a front doorbell missing, but we can assume there were once four units in this three-story structure, which sprawls down a steep hill toward Park Avenue.

The property was owned by Darrell Turcotte and Christopher Thiele. If those names sound familiar, you must have read about the property on Cumberland Avenue we profiled on this page last May, which they also owned. County real estate records indicate that the Grant and Cumberland properties, as well as a third unit on Mayo Street they also had, are all in the foreclosure process now.

I still haven’t had any luck reaching the pair. A message left at a number for Turcotte, who’s listed as the manager of a public housing property in Westbrook, was not returned. I’m not surprised. This looks like a case of investments gone sour — the foreclosure paperwork was filed during the recession’s darkest days a few years ago.

City tax records indicate the guys bought this building in 2004 for $315,000. County records show that as of March 2010, they owed over $357,000. Portland’s tax man assesses its value, including the land, at $293,500.

The Grant Street property has been empty for at least two years, maybe three, a neighbor said. You can’t really see inside, but you probably don’t want to, either. The roof’s in rough shape, so interior water damage is likely. And the way water runs down the hill it sits upon during storms, with no sump pump working the basement may house a swamp, as well.

Until this dump emerges from the swamp of foreclosure proceedings, it’ll continue to blight a neighborhood that’s been gradually getting better.

— Chris Busby