Exit133

September 22, 2015 · Exit133

An EB-5 Funded Mixed-Use Development in Tacoma's Brewery District?

Here's something we somehow missed this summer. It showed up in a City of Tacoma Community and Economic Development publication back in June. 

Wuhan Boshengshiji Real Estate, a Wuhan-based developer, is in the process of negotiating a development agreement with the City of Tacoma to acquire a 6.4-acre site in the Brewery District. The developer plans to build residential, office and retail space as well as parking in two phases. The project is proposed to be financed in part through developer equity and EB-5 capital. 

The specific site isn't mentioned explicitly, but 6.4 acres is the size of the City-owned vacant blocks at 21st and Jefferson, just up the hill from the historic buildings and warehouses of the Brewery District.

It's a brief note, and there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of other information out there, and past plans for the Brewery District have materialized, only to fall through for one reason or another. That said, it does seem worth keeping an eye on...

Filed under: Neighborhoods, Developments, City Projects, Economic Development, Rumor & Speculation, Brewery District, 21st & Jefferson, EB-5

8 comments

  • Jesse September 22, 2015

    Yay! That would be amazing. Fingers crossed!

  • Scott September 23, 2015

    Article in the Tribune related to the project. http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/business/article36245736.html

  • Dan H September 23, 2015

    That's interesting. I wonder how they intend to show the job creation required by the EB5 program. Usually EB5 is used for hotels, assisted living facilities, and other businesses that employ a large number of low wage employees. This allows them to get to the required number of new jobs (I think 10 is the number needed) created to qualify for their visas. Apartments and commercial space would be a lot trickier I would think. At any rate it would be great for the city. A giant chunk of Downtown would go back on the tax roles, while creating significant activity in the area.

  • joe-nate September 24, 2015

    There's a great opportunity for the developer to use feng shui and Chinese-style landscape motifs to create a unique modern China-styled development on that acreage. Chinatowns in the U.S. were often formed because laws prevented China-born people from living elsewhere. In this instance, perhaps Chinese-inspired aesthetics could add a new dimension to design in Tacoma, where in the early 1880s China-born merchants had shops mixed with businesses of other newcomers in New Tacoma (downtown). Then the expulsion happened. More recently, the early 1980s Tacoma Center project built by Weyerhaeuser Company subsidiary Cornerstone Development at S. 13th and Broadway remains an award-winning design achievement. That whole-neighborhood redevelopment idea should guide designs for this valuable contiguous acreage just uphill from the UW-Tacoma. City officials and the developers need to get this project done right--as happened thirty years ago with Tacoma Center.

    • Jim Doyle September 24, 2015

      I hope it's not the Chinese-inspired esthetic we see in Shanghai or Dalian or Tianjin....

    • James October 19, 2015

      Already we're proposing a "Chinese flavor" to the project... How about those of us that don't WANT a "Chinese motif?" How about if some of us are sick to death of "motif-ing" and playing up to Asian politics? How about those Irish, huh? ;) Didn't we do something to impact America? I kinda remember something about the Civil War...

  • Katy September 24, 2015

    I have never seen this little pdf "Tacoma Focus" before so I figured I share it - not any more significant info but nice to see it all in one publication: http://cms.cityoftacoma.org/cedd/EDS/TacomaFocus/TacomaFocus.pdf

  • Jim Doyle September 24, 2015

    So this would be different from and in addition to the Yareton development with two towers?