After two years on the market, Bend’s iconic Pilot Butte Drive-In sold last week for $1.2 million. The space will be reincarnated as a pizza, beer and poker establishment, set for opening this summer.

New owners Kleveland Kee and his son, Kohlter Kee, plan to rebrand the building as the Pilot Butte Taproom. Pizza and beer will be sold for a portion of the day, and then around 6 p.m. it will transform into a social gaming club with poker tables.

The existing building will be renovated for the new business.

Former property owner William Falconer originally paid $1.75 million for the property in 2009, according to the county records. He had taken over the business in 2007 and leased the building for two years before buying it from the previous owners, Jack and Dee Mangin.

Falconer, who is now retired and living in southern Nevada, had tried to sell the property in 2018, listing it for $2.5 million. When it didn’t sell he dropped the price again in 2020 to $1.75 million. He was terse about the final price.

“That is just the way it goes sometimes,” Falconer said.

Jim Birtola, the agent representing the seller, said the price was higher in 2018 because at the time it was being sold as a full restaurant will all the equipment included.

“He sold everything out, and we basically sold it for dirt price,” said Birtola. “We had it out there for a while. We couldn’t move it, so we had to just keep coming down on it.”

Birtola said when the building was for sale, a number of prospective buyers made inquiries about how the property could be used, but they walked away from the project.

“There are a lot of regulations and hoops that you have to jump through with the city and the county to do what you want to do,” said Birtola. “They just weren’t getting the right answers from the city about what they wanted to do.”

The transition to a new business won’t be the first for the location. An A&W Restaurant was located on the site in the late 1960s or early 1970s said Falconer. The Mangin’s established the Pilot Butte Drive-In in 1983, and it was later run by their son, Steve. Falconer said the new owners will have big shoes to fill, at least when it comes to the food.

“I am going to miss it,” Falconer said. “We made pretty darn good food. That is what people are going to expect. We had the best breakfasts and the best burgers around.”

Kohlter Kee said the renovations include putting a bar in the location of the counter. The poker tables, which Kee bought two years ago from the Bend Poker Room, will come out when the social club opens at night.

During poker hours the business will be open to people over the age of 21. The owners will take an entry fee at the door but will not make money from the poker games.

“It’s a social gaming club. It’s where people go to play cards, and gamble, but we don’t make money off the players. They are just playing against each other. We are just hosting the game,” Kee said.

A social gaming permit from the city is required for the poker matches, Kee said. That permit is currently in process.

“We have been trying to find a spot for two years or so, and we finally found the perfect spot,” Kee said. “It’s an iconic building so I hope that Bend will support it.”