Elks on Broadway Apartments Won't Happen
It’s official; the City of Tacoma will not be partnering with Grace Pleasants and Rick Moses on a parking garage/mixed-use building next door to the McMenamins Elks Temple project. We read in The News Tribune that a March 21, 2012 letter from City Manager T.C. Broadnax informed the Elks on Broadway developers that the City is officially terminating the development agreement “for default and failure to cure.”
Last we heard, the City/Pleasants-Moses agreement, which was part of the deal that brought the McMenamins project to Tacoma, was in trouble. The McMenanmins would not be using the building for additional hotel space, the parking component was not forecast to make money, and the developers were heading back to the drawing board for a scaled-down plan.
The McMenamins continue to confirm that their plans to develop the Elks building itself will move forward. According to the most recent from the TNT, they are in the process of applying for permits, and still aim to open in Spring of 2013. According to the TNT, the McMenamins have 30 days to decide whether they are interested in buying out the property that was to be developed for the Elks on Broadway project, and to propose their own development plan. There is no word yet on whether they have expressed any interest.
It’s time to start dreaming again. What would look good sitting next to the Elks Temple? Or, to flip it around – what would look good next to David’s on Broadway?
Read more from The News Tribune.
Previously from Exit133: Challenges Continue for Elks on Broadway.
Filed under: McMenamins Elks Project
5 comments
J Jesse March 27, 2012
Use the $10m that was going to be used for the garage and put it into the pot for streetcar up Stadium Way.
Or…
Use part of the $10m to make buying Old City Hall viable for a McMenamins hotel. Use the remainder $7m-ish to put together a triple deal with UWT, a condo developer, the housing authority to re-do the Winthrop.
See? I can spend millions in seconds! Ha!
T talus March 27, 2012
I second what Jesse said. I was thinking the streetcar too, but that second idea is even better if it could preserve and substantially improve both OCH and the Winthrop.
C Chris Karnes March 28, 2012
“Use the $10m that was going to be used for the garage and put it into the pot for streetcar up Stadium Way.”
This is the BEST IDEA EVER! It would signal a significant change in the way that the City chooses to fund transportation projects.
No more City-funded parking garages.
J Jenny Jenkins March 29, 2012
I love the idea of McMenamins expanding into the Old City Hall building; that would be great! Maybe until something gets planned for the space next to the Elks, they could put in a mini putt-putt course/beer garden – like a little tiny version of what they’ve got at Edgefield. Just give it to them until we have someone willing to buy.
A Andrew March 29, 2012
Say it ain’t so! Great development can happen without new parking garages! Eric Anderson and planners still rooted in the 1950s will be shocked!
I don’t thing the 10 million ever existed. I think it was part of the Erik Anderson made up parking lot fund that wasn’t real.
Glad to see elks is still moving forward regardless.