LeMay Looking for $3.5 million Loan to Begin ...
We’re playing catch up here …
There’s news on LeMay! Progress on the LeMay Museum is being held up by the current credit market. (Ack!) So …
The City of Tacoma and LeMay officials outlined a plan on Tuesday for a $3.5 million loan.
The money would come from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Section 108 loan program. Tacoma would borrow the money from HUD and re-lend it to the museum.
Tacoma has participated in the Section 108 program for about 20 years, but has not made a loan from it in about three or four years, said Martha Anderson, assistant director of the the city’s Community and Economic Development Department.
The loans would be secured by the museum’s auto collection. They hope to begin construction in August.
Link to The News Tribune
Previously on Exit133
Filed under: General
7 comments
I I'm for Change (for tacoma) March 12, 2009
This is not good news, now that I’m an East-sider. McKinley Hill residents will now lose their water views, unless they live in a really tall house/condo. I’m picturing another T.Dome sized building – if you’re up high enough, sure the view is great.
And what happens during T.Dome events since the parking lots will be unusable? We get enough overflow parking now. Not complaining about that w/the current situation-it happens. Although I wish less trash happened (lazy A**s). But what happens during construction, I make some side money by allowing parking on my yard? Sounds great until you think about the times I won’t be there, but people still park on my yard.
I hope I’m wrong. Please God, Allah, the Fates…prove me wrong.
S Squid March 12, 2009
Lurch (from Addams Family), shaking head: “Uhhhhhhhhhh”
R RR Anderson March 13, 2009
tacomic spider senses tingling…
J J. Cote March 13, 2009
I’m for change@ #1: I posed the same question ions ago when they first started talking about using the Dome Parking Lot for LeMay.
Typical Tacoma Conundrum: where in the hell will everyone park? It’s a question that NEVER gets answered and NEVER will until you go to a Council meeting and make enough noise to get arrested ala Will Baker. Or, if your rich enough to have a few Council Members in your pocket.
Good luck, neighbor.
T Thorax O'Tool March 13, 2009
The answer is so glaringly obvious!
What is this thing? It’s a museum of cars… that’s right, a very fancy parking garage. So build a parking garage for the visitors too! It’s so easy: the T-Dome is about 75’ above sea level. Build a garage 5 stories underground, and like 3 stories above… but here’s the beauty of it: design the above ground portion to look like it’s part of the LeMay museum. Thus you get visual continuity and parking. Between the lot not being used for the museum, the freighthouse square garage and this one, there would be enough parking to accommodate even a DJ Tiesto concert.
F Frizzlebee March 13, 2009
The new museum is slated to be built on the ‘parking lot’ that houses all of the bleachers for the T-Dome. Granted, that still doesn’t solve any kind of parking problem. I’m with Thorax’s idea. If the city were to help finance LeMay and build an underground parking garage, that would definitely help out. We don’t need it deep enough to house parking for molemen or sleestaks, but a couple of levels would do wonders.
I do have one question, though… where will all the bleachers go?
N Nick March 13, 2009
“It’s a question that NEVER gets answered and NEVER will until you go to a Council meeting and make enough noise to get arrested ala Will Baker.”
Really? I think we have the opposite problem. Tacoma already has an unreasonably high parking requirement for all new construction, which is why nobody ever builds anything here except for a few 5 or 6 story condos (building so much parking for anything taller is cost-prohibitive). If anything, this is the kind of thinking that has caused Tacoma so many problems where other cities have thrived.
I don’t know what sort of arrangements the museum has for parking, but I doubt they have been able to skirt the issue of that parking requirement (anyone more familiar with the issue, feel free to correct me if I’m mistaken).
As to lost views, it’s important to remember that nobody owns a view. Unless of course one owns all the property beneath that view as well. It’s unfortunate, but goes with the territory when living close to a downtown core.