Exit133

January 14, 2014 · Exit133

New Occupants Coming to Long-Vacant Triangle District Building

The building at South 6th and St Helens has been on our "wouldn't-it-be-cool-if-someone-did-something-cool-with-that" list for a long time now. Well, it looks like someone is finally going to do something with it.

The News Tribune reports that Fife-based design-build Architecture firm HHJ Inc purchased the building for $750,000. The TNT reports that HHJ will be moving its offices into half of the space at 601 St. Helens in a few months (after a bit of a remodel, we assume), and plans to lease out the remaining 6,000 square feet.

The HHJ portfolio includes a list of local projects like Poole's corner (where Farelli's and Metronome sit at 6th and Union), Uptown Gig Harbor, and others.

The 1929 building was historically home to a number of car dealerships, and more recently to Rector's Antiques, but has been sadly under-used in recent years. Other than Rector's taking up brief residency, the last time we really had much to say about this building was way back in the day when we thought Prium was going to build Jay Heights next door... (You can still view the grand plans for Jay Heights on the Prium website, including a downloadable postcard).

All that aside, we're looking forward to seeing some life in the old building - anyone looking for office space?

Filed under: Downtown Tacoma, Tacoma Business, Neighborhoods, Developments

5 comments

  • Evelyn Fielding Lopez January 14, 2014

    That it's a really classy building. It will be nice to watch it come back too life!

  • Morgan Blackmore January 15, 2014

    I had looked at renting the building a few years ago. It's in poor shape and needs a lot of work to make it usable, but the owner was unwilling to do any improvement whatsoever. I'm glad to see it sold.

  • Jake January 15, 2014

    Looking at those pictures sure makes you wish the Broadway LID went further up St Helens!

    • Dan January 15, 2014

      No kidding. It still could get rebuilt if the A3 option for the streetcar extension goes through.

  • Greg Johnson January 16, 2014

    WOW - Who would have thought a design-build firm would have bought this slice of Tacoma history. Haha. Glad to see it off the radar of available buildings for sale. Congrats - more jobs to tacoma. :)