Development planned for town center in Tacoma

TACOMA, Wash. — Architectural graphics have been released showing a sprawling development that builders say will create a town center in the south part of downtown Tacoma.

The development, which will cover nearly 6 1/2 acres of land that has sat unused for more than 10 years, will be next door to the University of Washington Tacoma.

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“(There will be) 400 units of multifamily housing, 200,000 square feet of retail, up to another 100,000 plus of office space,” Tacoma Economic Development Director Ricardo Noguera said.

The site is bordered by South 21st and 23rd streets, and South Jefferson and Tacoma avenues. It’s across the street from the newly opened 7 Seas Brewery.

The cash to build the complex comes from a Chinese investor who grabbed up the land for less than half of the $7.7 million the city owes on it.

The city credits the university with creating the incentive to buy and build in a neighborhood that was once a blight on Tacoma's reputation.

“The visionaries suggested putting it here at a time when this was the most crime ridden part of downtown Tacoma,” UWT Director of External Relations Mike Wark said. “People thought that was a little crazy.”

Recently, the neighborhood has been part of a reborn brewery district and that includes new apartments.

On the south side of the planned development at 23rd Street, the school and city are working on getting a biotech accelerator project up and running.

This has been the plan for more than two decades, say the university and the city.

Build the school and the city will grow around it.

“So the university has been the catalyst in the southern part of downtown,” Noguera said. “Now we have more housing developers moving in.”

Work is scheduled to begin in the spring of 2017. The first phase of the project is expected to be complete in 2019.

Cox Media Group