Voodoo Doughnut plans to open a Vancouver location in this former bank building, now painted pink, near Vancouver Mall. At top, a neon sign that adorns the Voodoo Doughnut store in Portland's Old Town-Chinatown neighborhood. (Amanda Cowan/The Columbian)Photo Gallery
Portland’s landmark Voodoo Doughnut, known for its distinctive pink carryout boxes and wide range of over-the-top novelty offerings, is preparing to open a store in Vancouver. Voodoo Doughnut CEO Chris Schultz confirmed the plan this week.
“Ever since I’ve come to Voodoo, we’ve been on the lookout for a store in Vancouver,” he said.
The new branch will be at 8203 N.E. Vancouver Mall Drive, on the outside of the Vancouver Mall loop, in a building that formerly housed a Chase Bank branch. The first Voodoo Doughnut sign is scheduled to be installed next week, but there’s already a visible hint about the future of the site: The building has been painted pink.
The store is targeting a mid-November opening, Schultz said.
Schultz joined Voodoo about four years ago after serving as an executive at Starbucks and later MOD Pizza. He said Voodoo has received frequent requests for a shop in Vancouver, and his prior success operating Starbucks and MOD locations in the city made it a good candidate.
The former Chase Bank branch is one of three adjacent commercial buildings on a single piece of property west of the mall, according to Clark County property records. Like most of the other developed properties along the mall’s perimeter, it is not owned by Vancouver Mall parent company Centennial Real Estate.
Schultz said the company has had its eye on the spot for about six months and appreciated that it was a high-visibility site with ample parking. It’s also near several other big-name food establishments that have opened in recent years, such as the Chick-fil-A at the southwest corner of the mall loop, he said.
The store won’t operate 24 hours a day like its downtown Portland counterpart, Schultz said, but will likely be open until 10 p.m. on weekdays and midnight on weekends. The company plans to hire between 50 and 70 staff to operate the store, he said.
Voodoo Doughnut opened its first location in Portland’s Old Town-Chinatown neighborhood in 2003, followed by its eastside Portland location in 2008. Subsequent expansions took the company beyond Oregon, with locations in Colorado, Texas, Florida and California.
One of the most recent additions brought things back to the Portland metro area with a new branch in Milwaukie, Ore., that opened in late 2019. Voodoo Doughnut currently has 11 locations, and Vancouver will make 12; although, it will be quickly followed up by new locations in Houston and Denver late in the year, Schultz said.
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