Chamber on Board with Sounder Re-Routing?

The Board of Directors for the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber will consider a resolution next week that encourages Sound Transit to pursue more context sensitive solutions through the Dome District for expanded Sounder service, identifies key community goals for project design, and offers to convene a Programming & Design Summit to bring together public and private interests.

Earlier this year, two community groups expressed concerns about the routing of this project and invited the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Southwest Washington to develop new project alternatives that would, in their view, better support local economic development goals. In November, the Chamber’s City Center Luncheon examined these alternatives.

If approved by business leaders, provisions of the Chamber's resolution will be advocated with Sound Transit, which is expected to address the issue at their February 22nd meeting.

Get Your Share of Tax Savings

The Washington State Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development has accepted recommendations from the City of Tacoma and the Tacoma Community Redevelopment Authority for $12 million in Commercial Revitalization Deductions (CRD) to be awarded to four commercial building projects in Tacoma:

• 1201 'J' St. LLC for the “First Swedish Baptist Church” Building: $340,000
• Dotcom Associates 1 LLC for the “Kress Payless” Building: $8,250,000
• Sun-In Holdings LLC trans-load facility: $350,000
• Atrium Court LLC on behalf of future commercial owners: $3,060,500

The benefits to these projects include a reduced federal tax bill and an increased ability to make their projects “pencil” by giving owners financial relief early in the projects when they incur the most expenses. The CRD allocation is one of several tools afforded downtown business and property owners through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Renewal Community (RC) designation. Tacoma is the only place in Puget Sound--and one of only 29 urban communities around the country--to maintain the designation with a variety of federal tax credits and deductions through 2009.

The Atrium Court Office Condominiums still have five units available for purchase. Future owners can write off their share of the award amount off their income taxes--ranging from about $204,000 to almost $250,000 (depending on size of unit purchased)--as a deduction from their income. For more information, contact Don Arsenault at (253) 759-5000.

No Stalling on South Garage Project

As anticipated, the City of Tacoma is moving ahead with plans to partner with a private developer to rehabilitate the 36-year-old Park Plaza South. The proposed $32.5 million renovation would create two new floors of Class 'A' office space and 104 additional city-owned parking spaces, and would revamp 30,000 square feet of retail space along Pacific Ave.

The City plans to fund the overall cost of approximately $9.5 million through $2 million reserved for deferred maintenance and nearly $8 million in 20-year bonds, according to a presentation during yesterday to the Tacoma City Council's Economic Development Committee. The City would assemble the parcels along Pacific Ave., and Pacific Plaza LLC--a partnership between PCS Structural Solutions and Absher Construction Company--would purchase and develop the building, then sell the parking stalls back to the City. In the end, the city would run 485 parking stalls and the partners would own office (both companies plan to move their own enterprises into the new space) and retail spaces. The City would assemble the properties through purchase and acquisition or--if necessary--eminent domain.

Park Plaza South needs as much as $7 million in deferred maintenance, including retrofit work to make the garage structurally sound, so the project seems a most reasonable alternative. Once the City gives them a green light, the partners believe that they can kick off redevelopment of the garage as early as this summer--although the City has yet to contact merchants and property owners to discuss the idea. The committee unanimously approved a "do-pass" recommendation to assemble the property, seek revenue bonds, and enter into a development agreement, but action still requires full City Council approval--expected next month.

Prium Begins Winthrop Transformation

The long-awaited purchase by Prium Companies of the controversial Winthrop Hotel is supposed to be completed next week, but the developer needs 18 to 24 months to build new housing so the hotel’s low-income tenants can relocate.

After that, Prium plans to restore the building to its traditional use as a hotel with retail space for a restaurant, coffee shop and flower shop. The company also promises to work with the City of Tacoma to develop parking plans to benefit both the hotel and the larger downtown.

The Tacoma City Council is expected tonight to approve a loan to Prium for $2 million in federal Urban Development Action Grant dollars. The money is to be paid back within five years and carries an interest rate of 4 percent.

Hillclimbs Redefined

As one of the outcomes of last year's Project for Public Spaces workshop, the BIA encouraged several committee efforts to address various topics. One of these groups looked at the need to better define pedestrian paths up and down the city centers' hills.

Local attorney Erik Bjornson and architect Ko Wibowo have been examining downtown's hillclimbs for several months now--finding them to be full of blind spots, sharp corners, empty benches, and otherwise unsettling elements. Using Jane Jacobs’ book The Death and Life of Great American Cities as their guide, the pair set out to find ways to increase area foot traffic and improve passageways currently pretty much avoided by pedestrians.

Wibowo has prepared a sketch of their improvement ideas, which include new retail spaces, widened walkways, and outdoor public seating. The pair also quit walking long enough to complete an interview with the Tacoma Daily Index. They have been invited to make a more formal presentation of their findings to the City Center Luncheon on February 9th.

The Eclectic Kool-Aid Acid Test?

Ed Murrieta's blog Ed's Diner over at The News Tribune has started a very lively dialog about downtown parking, dining and retail that is worth reviewing. His January 4th post, entitled Mommy, that downtown Kool-Aid tastes funny, unleashed a torrent of responses from an eclectic mix of readers.

Murrieta quotes an e-mail from a (unnamed) downtown restauranteur who is "angry for having drunk the Downtown Revival Kool-Aid." The implication is that the promises of revitalization have been a hallucination--at least for some segments of the community:

The restaurants came. Where's the retail? More condos are coming. Where's
the retail?

It's well-established in real estate circles that restaurants are often the pioneers in districts on the rebound. It's equally clear that they can't survive indefinitely without a broader mix of stores and activities.

One respondent to Murietta's post cites a lack of available on street parking as the deterrent; Murietta rejects that explanation and so do most experts. Parking and transit are services that can support retail growth either well or poorly, but they don't drive that growth.

Murietta's readers offer lots of good suggestions for types of retail that ought to blossom downtown, but they and he don't ask the seminal question: What group is charged with enticing that new retail downtown?

BIA 'Grafitti Patrol' Tags Taggers

Due to continued heavy graffiti defacing properties near 7th & Broadway, the BIA and Tacoma Police jointly staged a special "graffiti patrol" over the past two weekends, fielding covert operations during the "graveyard" shift when most of the damage was occurring. In the early morning of January 1st, the BIA/TPD team apprehended five taggers.

BIA patrol members John Leitheiser and Charles Kempel spotted four of the taggers and contacted TPD officer Jeff Thiry, who made the arrest; a second TPD officer was called for backup when Kempel observed a fifth suspect moving away from the scene; this suspect was also apprehended. A search of the suspects by TPD revealed eleven cans of spray paint, and all five were booked into jail for destruction of property.

The success of this approach may lead to repeat efforts as the district's budget allows. One of more other taggers hit Davita and other properties around 15th & Pacific overnight last night.