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The Tacoma City Council envisions a broader but denser development pattern, linked by streetcars. Project Destiny looks forward to the Russell Investment Group occupying 1.2 million square feet in a new corporate headquarters, the jewel in a "re-positioned" downtown that is attractive and affordable to other corporate offices, as well. The BIA continues to encourage "more feet on the street" as the district prepares to kick off its third decade of service.These are all facets of the same goal--to fill in the "dead spots" in downtown's built environment with more housing, shopping, offices and visitor attractions. Despite the very real success of local leaders since the mid-1990s, that remains a challenging assignment.
The superheated (some now are suggesting the term "overheated") downtown housing market of the past few years is finally cooling, but there's no consensus yet on how cold that trend will turn. There are some recent signs that at least a small rally may be developing, but sales have plummeted.
Next week's City Center Luncheon will present a panel discussion that may shed more light on future trends in the market but, for now, John Gillie's comprehensive feature in Sunday's edition of The News Tribune is a good snapshot of the current state of key developments. Gillie's "status check" of downtown projects tells him that 2008 can expect"a more measured pace of development,...more rental units instead of condos,...more office space construction and...more affordable condo conversions."
Tighter credit and slowing absorption of unsold units, Gillie contends, have caused developers "to slow down projects, redesign them to better fit market realities in Tacoma, and to slim the designs to make those projects more affordable in a market where construction costs have climbed steeply."
These are all facets of the same goal--to fill in the "dead spots" in downtown's built environment with more housing, shopping, offices and visitor attractions.
ReplyDeleteA worthy goal. Attractive downtowns have continuous retail frontages on their main streets which Tacoma building and land use regulations make almost impossible.
Here's a photo downtown Tacoma on Pacific with 6 adjacent parking lots. Not very attractive or functional for a downtown. It makes downtown Tacoma look more like Sea-Tac than a walkable downtown and a barrier for most pedestrians.
Yet, this is Tacoma's "Main Street."
If Tacoma is going to be able to become competitive with other cities seeking to attract Russell, it needs to closely examine its zoning and building requirements to our competitor cities like Seattle and San Francisco.
Right now, the restrictions on building anything significant in downtown Tacoma is going to make it hard for Russell to build a large building. See the
analysis by Skagit Planner Andre Stone in which he concludes that the City of Tacoma's antiquated off-street parking requirement would require someone seeking to build a 40 story office building in downtown Tacoma to also build a $24,000,000, 14 story parking garage.
It is unlikely that Russell will be willing to build such a monstrous and expensive structure when other cities would allow them to construct the amount of parking that they needed and desired based on the market.
Erik:
ReplyDeleteTacoma's antiquated off-street parking requirement would require someone seeking to build a 40 story office building in downtown Tacoma to also build a $24,000,000, 14 story parking garage
That's one of the reasons we are kicking off Destination Downtown Door-to-Door this year.
By 2020, Tacoma’s downtown area is expected to add 11,600 jobs; given current commute patterns, accommodating this growth will require creation of more than 11,000 new parking stalls at a cost of more than $200 million. Increasing transit use by just 4% over the same period will save Tacoma more than $9 million.
By 2020, Tacoma’s downtown area is expected to add 11,600 jobs;
ReplyDeleteI hope you are right. Tacoma's going to have to get far more competitive with other west coast cities if this is going to occur.