Tacoma Development News

[seapug]

Project Updates:

Downtown

Stadium District / St. Helens Neighborhood:

Hanna Heights: Complete. Condo to Apartment
505 Broadway: Under Construction
Granville Condos: Complete
Bella on Broadway Apartments: Complete
The Metropolitan Apartments Phase II: Under Construction (move in June 1st 2008)
One St. Helens Apartments: Complete
The Ansonia Condos: Under Conversion
The Elks Temple : For Sale. See TNT Story
The Walker Condos: Under Conversion - Maxwell's the restaurant on the 1st floors should be open in April!
Stadium302 : Under Construction. High End Condos overlooking Stadium High School and the Stadium Bowl

Theater District / Downtown Core/ Foss Waterway/ UWT/Dome District:

Marcato Condos: Complete
Villagio Aparments : Under Construction / Complete
MidTown Lofts: Under Construction
The Mecca: Under Conversion. Great History: first Hotel, then Adult Theater, now Condos
The Esplanade: Under Construction
Old City Hall: Sale Pending. Offices, planned to be converted to condos, then to Class A Offices, then for sale, now sale pending to be class A offices.
The Roberson Condos: Complete
Pacific Plaza: Under Construction. Parking Garage w/ Retail to Class A Office with Parking and Retail Rehab. Multi-State corporation said to be moving their HQ next year to office space.
Luzon Building: Deal Closed 3/14/08 Construction to start by end of April.
Ford Building and Cresent Ballroom: Under Construction. Future HQ of TRA Medical Imaging
Hotel Murano: Officially Hotel Murano as of 03/08. Lots of Art and Worldwide media attention.
UWT Assembly Hall : Under Construction
Brewery District Hotel : Planning stages. New Design 03/08
Court 17 Apartments : Complete. On UWT Campus but open to all.
Hunt-Mottet Lofts: Warehouse Rehab Complete
Urban Waters :Research Facility. Design Phase. LEED Platinum (highest possible)
LeMay America's Car Museum: Ground breaking planned for 2008. Tacoma Dome parking lot

Hilltop / McCarver Neighborhood :

Hillcrest Apartments: Under Construction
Chelsea Heights : Under Construction. Condo to Apartments
27th Street Station Condos: Under Conversion
City Steps: Complete
McCarver Village: Phases Under Construction / Complete
Metro Homes: Under Construction / Complete
Lexington Square: Under Construction
Element 20: Under Construction
Bella View Townhomes: Under Construction
HighRidge Townhomes Phase 2: Under Construction


Ruston / Pt. Defiance:

Point Ruston : Under Construction. Planned waterfront community of 800+ condos, Silver Cloud Inn, and retail.
Ruston Point Condos : Conversion Complete
The Commencement : Under Construction
Village at the Pointe : Conversion Complete
The Cove : Under Conversion

Tacoma Mall :

Apex Apartments and Condos: Complete
"Townhome City": West of the mall there must be at least 50 townhome projects.

[taiwanesedrummer36]

Well, there's:

- Museum of Glass
- possible Tacoma Dome renovation?
- Tacoma Convention Center (originally with some spire?)
- Tacoma Mall expansion?
- some redeveloped community (Salishan I think it's called, on Portland Avenue)
- Thea Foss Waterway new waterfront community
- Tacoma Link streetcar
- expanded SR 16 w/ Tacoma Narrows Bridge III
- Tacoma freeways expansion to accomodate HOV lane
- Sounder commuter rail extension to S. Tacoma, Lakewood

For some reason there just doesn't seem to be a flurry of development seen in other parts of the region. Could crime be a factor?

[taiwanesedrummer36]

Oh yeah, I forgot:

Is it possible to change the name of the thread to Tacoma/Pierce County Development News instead? From what i've seen there's not much to report on Tacoma developments, but if you add in Pierce County, i'm sure there would be much more.

[kub86]

I heard that Lakewood is thinking of building condos and retail atop the parking at their Towne Center (similar to what University Place is doing).

And Puyallup is slowly building up its downtown civic core with new offices and midrise condos.

[seapug]

lot of info on this page and a few links that don't work

http://www.exit133.com/1376

[taiwanesedrummer36]

Wow, are there really that many condo projects in Tacoma?! I had absolutely no clue!

[NW Mike]

There was a great thread on Tacoma at SSP for some time with a great list of Condo projects. Maybe it still exists.

[mhays]

Condo construction has slowed down in Tacoma.

On the bright side, that means projects that go forward won't have as much competition. Often the most successful projects are the ones who do the opposite of what others do.

[rj2uman]

I am shocked on one posted this story yet.

http://dwb.thenewstribune.com/news/c...-5755725c.html

[WESTSEATTLEGUY]

I hope they do expand the height limit.

[Bond James Bond]

I coulda sworn there used to be a Tacoma thread here. But maybe not.

Anyway I'll sticky it.

[jlbjlb]

Originally Posted by Bond James Bond

I coulda sworn there used to be a Tacoma thread here. But maybe not.

Anyway I'll sticky it.

Perhaps:

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=480750

[NW Mike]

I just read an interesting article in Seattle Business Monthly
Here is part of the article for free. Go to Barnes and Noble to read the rest.
"Tacoma: Its a waiting Game" At Tacoma’s many museums, which are often pointed to as signs of the city’s progress, it’s easy to find a few souvenir postcards depicting the city’s skyline.

Photographers typically set up their tripods at the same spot: a patch of shoreline on the east side of Foss Waterway. The location offers a view of downtown’s hillclimb, the rusty steel stretch of Murray Morgan Bridge and a handful of stumpy, mid-rise office towers.

This image, for the most part, hasn’t changed for nearly two decades.

By contrast, high-rise construction thrives in Seattle and Bellevue. Shiny new office towers and the spindly, right-angled arms of cranes crowd downtown Bellevue’s skyline. Seattle saw its largest office towers rise in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and now enjoys a boom in expensive, high-rise condominium projects.


Photo from www.seattlebusinessmonthly.com
But Tacoma’s skyline has a few cobwebs. Its largest tower—the 23-story Wells Fargo Plaza, a simple box with a dated white-and-black chessboard façade—was built in 1970. Two blocks away, the 17-story Tacoma Financial Center opened 23 years ago. Tacoma’s newest tower, the mid-rise, nine-story Columbia Bank Center, turned seven this year. Surveying downtown Tacoma’s skyline, one can reasonably ask: When will the city see a new office tower?
“The city would like to see a new high-rise,” says Mike Hickey, principal at Neil Walter Co., a commercial brokerage firm in downtown Tacoma. “Private developers would like to build a new high-rise. The problem is we don’t have tenant demand. We don’t have a tenant saying, ‘I’ll commit to 100,000 square feet if you build it.’ That’s what’s keeping [construction of a new high-rise] from happening.”

While Tacoma’s commercial real estate market is still a fraction of Seattle’s, this former timber town is growing fast and would appear to be a perfect market for developers. But it isn’t.

In fact, this regional hub, military center and major port is a study in contradictions.

As the story goes on it gets better Its worth reading

[taiwanesedrummer36]

[Disregard]

EDIT: Well, some of us don't have the time at this moment to go to a bookstore. I was just giving my opinion from the preview above, but just forget about it....

[NW Mike]

If you read the whole article in the magazine you will know why they are not building like Bellevue or Seattle. Check it out. Its a good read.

[CrazyAboutCities]

Finally we got Tacoma thread! It need renderings on these projects list.

[Puertalian]

Finally! Thanx for adding the thread. I dont mean to sound like jerk but i doubt many if any of the people on this thread have been to tacoma recently. While it is true that commercial growth has been, and still is, quite slow in the downtown area, the residential sector is picking up quite a bit. Several Large Condos are being completed on the foss waterway, and many mid rise complexes are sprouting up just north of downtown, in the stadium district and hill top area. I will try to go and get some pictures some time in the near future.

[mhays]

Originally Posted by Puertalian

Finally! Thanx for adding the thread. I dont mean to sound like jerk but i doubt many if any of the people on this thread have been to tacoma recently. While it is true that commercial growth has been, and still is, quite slow in the downtown area, the residential sector is picking up quite a bit. Several Large Condos are being completed on the foss waterway, and many mid rise complexes are sprouting up just north of downtown, in the stadium district and hill top area. I will try to go and get some pictures some time in the near future.

I have.

[seapug]

i was there on thursday gonna go back in a few weeks. i took a few pictures looked at a condo ate at a good hole in the wall mexican resturaunt and watched telemundo. it's really nice having a sounder train into seattle in the evening. i'm looking for information on a project by the sounder station where an old matress factory currently is.

[citruspastels]

i stopped by there on my way to portland last spring and i thought it was awesome. i ate lunch there and drove around a bit. obviously a fair deal poorer than seattle but the city has tons of character, which i really appreciate. i was definitely impressed by the downtown area. lots of potential to be a great little city in my opinion. not that it isn't already, but like seattle, tacoma has charm but there is always room for improvement ;-)

i hope light rail goes all the way down there. connecting tacoma to the cities/neighborhoods between it and seattle will greatly help not only land use patterns in these places, but also will help tacoma become more of a regional destination.