Exit133

January 18, 2008 · Derek

Do You Want David's?

Most mornings I walk into Suite133, put down my bag, open up my computer, and start making coffee. The overnight e-mails begin to arrive in my inbox as I fire up some music on the office speakers. Then, with a full coffee mug, I sit down and look out the window. I see Old City Hall, the tower crane at 505 Broadway, the Metropolitan Apartments, and the backside of the Northern Pacific building. In the middle of the view is the old Union Club – aka David’s on Broadway.

As other buildings seem to be improving or rising, the Union Club is sitting. White columns. Five stories of circa 1888 vintage club house. I’ve always liked the building. It never looked polished to me, but it always seemed to have … potential.

Voelpel’s column today looks at the history of the Union Club. From President Taft to David’s on Broadway to Winfields. Now, for $3.5 million, it can be yours to write the next chapter. What would you do? Save the building? Or, to you, is it only worth the dirt it’s sitting on? Maybe we can pool our money and start our own social club in the space. I’ll look under the sofa cushions for a bit of spare change to get us started…

Link to The News Tribune

Previously on Exit133

16 comments

  • Jake January 18, 2008

    Vancouver, BC did it. How about Tacoma?

    http://www.macgrillbc.com/Vancouver.html

    Romano’s Macaroni Grill is located in one of Vancouver’s most spectacular heritage mansions in the heart of Vancouver’s West End.

    During the summer months, enjoy dinner in our backyard. Sit back and relax under the canopy of our stately magnolia trees and enjoy delicious Italian classics in our beautiful garden patio.

  • Erik B. January 18, 2008

    Now, for $3.5 million, it can be yours to write the next chapter. What would you do? Save the building?

    1) Let’s start a co-op. Work to save the building.

    2) Offer a reduced price.

    3) Divide and sell off the top floor for condos to help finance the building and reduce debt. Alternatively, lease the space out as apartments.

    4) Apply for and receive the historical tax credits, place the building on the registry.

    5) Open a restaurant and club on the main floor once the pool cue sign is pulled off the side of the building.

    6) Have co-working/artist basement for artists and startup companies. $195/month gives you access to work there but no right to any exclusive use. However, the price includes being able to showcase items upstairs. Lease 45 spaces with an expectation of a dozen people there at any time.

    Just a thought.

    Davids sits in the middle of many of the new apartments and condos going in. Someone should be able to start a restaurant any many other activities.

  • drizell January 18, 2008

    My personal opinion is that this is one of the ugliest buildings in the city of Tacoma and that the land could attract a higher and better (and more attractive) use. Voelpel’s columns always confuse me. One minute he’s talking about how much Tacoma needs high rises and new buildings, the next he’s championing preserving a building that quite frankly is not worth the effort.

    I would compare this building to the old Heidelberg Brewery: historic, but has had too many poorly planned alterations and additions that have stripped the building of any reasonable historic value. Plus, anyone that occupies the building is going to be haunted by the ghosts anyway.

    I say, tear it down! I’ll bring the fireworks.

    PS: I am a proud member of Historic Tacoma.

  • Christy January 18, 2008

    Save it! 1885 makes it one of Tacoma’s first buildings. We owe it to ourselves to save it.

    Been inside and it’s going to take a huge amount of work to restore it and the asking price is ridiculous. Someone needs to slap some sense into the owners.

    Still, save it.

  • NSHDscott January 18, 2008

    On an earlier “Save Russell” post I described my (half-baked, pie-in-the-sky) vision of a Russell HQ that includes new buildings on the parking lots on either side of the Elks, the Elks building itself for their open trading floors, and Old City Hall for more office space.

    This building is right next door, so in going along with that idea, it could become to Russell what a student union building is to a college: a place for Russellites (and regular folk?) to eat, hang out, and work out. The top floors could become luxury suites for visiting big-wigs.

  • tom waits January 18, 2008

    If you don’t think the Union Club is worth retaining, you must not like the Elks Lodge either.

    The Union Club is actually quite intact aside from some appendanges on its south and east facades. These can be removed without major changes to the form of the original building. The primary street elevation retains its historic character, and I have heard the interior does as well.

    This and the Blackwell Mansion are the remaining structures from Bankers’ Row. The Union Club is really the only visual clue left as to the appearance of this area of town in the 1880s – and only a handful of buildings still exist in downtown that were around when this was built.

    I’d hope that development focuses on the vacant tracts between it and the Elks, or the low slung condos next door, before targeting the Union Club.

    One problem with comparing properties like this with so-called highest and best use is that the question only comes up when there is a potential real estate transaction. In other words, private actions have incremental effects, and are not first evaluated against a bigger set of priorities. This is how we’ve lost most of the buildings in this area.

    It would be nice if this had been identified previously as a priority building. There are many, many other sites to develop/redevelop before this one.

  • CA January 18, 2008

    The Elks building is far more attractive and visually striking. I agree with others that the Union Club building is shabby and just plain ugly. You can find dozens of even more beautiful homes of this era all throughout the Puyallup/Sumner valley. I say sell the property to a developer who would tear it down and build a nice mixed use mid/high rise building.

  • tom waits January 18, 2008

    The Union Club is not a house and never was. Besides, why does whatever is in Puyallup matter?

    There’s a lot of historic architecture in Philly too, so let’s knock down Boston.

    I say there’s dozens of better sites for high density development in Seattle, so let’s send all of the developers up there instead.

    The point about the Elks is that it, too, has been poorly remodeled over the years and has lost a lot of its original features. Keep in mind that the shabbiness and derelict nature of the building, and the potential for redevelopment on the site, was the original justification for its demolition.

    Shabby buildings need to be fixed up, not torn down. It’s a civic identity, history, and sustainibility/waste-stream issue.

    Besides, historic issues notwithstanding, aside from the Foss developments nothing in this town recently constructed even comes close to a suitable replacement for either of these buildings. We’ve seen what’s being proposed for Tacoma these days. It’s not urban, it’s not dense, and it’s not pretty.

  • Tressie January 18, 2008

    Hey, when I win the lottery I’ll buy it!
    and…..having been in the trades for almost 20 years…I know what a good coat of paint can do…and 142 gallons of putty. It’s a part of Olde Tacoma….maybe not as classy as Historic Tacoma…..but worth saving. It’s only $$$ you rich people…spend some in Tacoma. I do.
    Oh and I went to a prom there….man the bathrooms are superb……and the view. True —the dancing on the deck was like a scene in a disaster movie

  • morgan January 18, 2008

    What a perfect spot for McMenamins! Where are those guys!?

  • Crenshaw Sepulveda January 19, 2008

    I would think that the old David’s would be too small for anything McMenamins would want to do in Tacoma. The Olympic Club in Centralia (of all places) is a McMenamins operation. It has a movie theater, pool hall, brew pub, restaurant, hotel, and a variety of other specialized areas. It is also in the heart of downtown.

    A perfect site for a McMenamins would have been the old Mecca at the minimum. Many think the Elks would be the perfect location for something by McMenamins. It could very well be but I don’t think we should count on our friends from Portland to create this for us. Some smart local developer will create such a thing if the need ever becomes evident.

    The prices of suitable structures may be putting themselves out of reach of those that would have a McMenamins type operation. Unless, of course, you look at the 56th and South Tacoma Way area. Suitable structures at probably reasonable prices.And Neko Case has sung about South Tacoma Way.What gets me is how can little Centralia have the population to sustain such an operation and it would appear there is no neighborhood in Tacoma that can.

    I think this is a question that we, the developers, the city officials, and other interested parties have to ask ourselves. Why don’t things happen in Tacoma, especially the things people wish would happen? Why are they able to happen in even unlikely places but they can not or will not happen here?

  • snoopy January 19, 2008

    This building is in poor condition. I wouldn’t call it ugly. The big “winfields” sign makes the building look ugly.

  • RGardner January 20, 2008

    While I think the Old Heidelberg Brewery building has no reeeming features other than the signs and the water tower (mid-50s industrial), the Winfields/social club building has character. Voepel is right, this needs to be saved.

  • Heidi January 20, 2008

    Last time I was inside, I was disappointed the woodwork had been repainted (badly). The value of the building is in the history – - going to take a lot of scraping (and perhaps removal of the awful additions) to bring it back… but it would be wonderfully worth it.

  • Erik S January 22, 2008

    Crenshaw, if the places suitable for a McMenamins-type operation have been priced out of the McMenamins-type reach, what are they priced for? The Addams Family? Landlord-investors from cloud cuckoo land?

  • JAYE January 22, 2008

    The sellers are certainly living in “Cloud cuckoo land” if they think they’ll get $3.5M for it. It just needs too much work. $750,000 and they may get a real offer from some developer who appreciates historic preservation. I would love to see this building saved. Mixed-use would be perfect. I visited before Winfield’s opened, and thought it was beautiful. It’s horrible to think of all the woodwork that was painted over! Shame on anyone who tears it down!