ProLogis Park in South Tacoma
Remember that new warehouse facility in South Tacoma? We learned a few more details yesterday at the Economic Development Committee meeting.
The facility is on BNSF property but will be owned and managed by ProLogis, the world’s largest distribution facilities company. The nearly 1.9 million square feet of distribution warehouses will represent $120 million worth of investment. When completed it should provide more than 500 on site jobs and annual tax revenues of $1.5 million.
Part of the facility will be capable of being serviced by trains, but most work is expected to be done by trucks. ProLogis will be constructing new public roads to allow truck traffic to travel out the north end of the site and car traffic out of the south end. They are expecting nearly 1,000 truck trips per day when at full capacity. Traffic on S. 56th will be managed by better sequencing of the lights and insistence on trucks avoid S. 56th.
Construction is expected to commence in 2009.
Filed under: Developments
10 comments
M michael buchanan May 15, 2008
This is a big deal. Prologis is the largest owner and developer of real estate indutrial distribution facilities in the world. My daughter and son-in-law work for their largest competitor, AMB Properties, in San Francisco which bought the Transpacific Industrial Park in Fife two years ago for $200 million, This is just further confirmation of the effect of the Port of Tacoma and the bright future for Tacoma.
D drizell May 15, 2008
158 acres of land, and the best thing you could think to put on it is a couple distribution warehouses? Give me a break. Distribution warehouses have about the lowest jobs per acre ratio of any land use around. Figure it out: 500 jobs divided by 158 acres equals about 3 jobs per acre. Just about any other commercial or industrial use is going to have a bigger impact than that. A new distribution center was recently completed in Centralia for Michaels, the craft store retailer. The building is 773,000 square feet and has only 25 employees. Local officials there were promised a huge economic impact due to this development, and have been very disappointed with the results. Tacoma will also be disappointed if they allow this to happen.
This is basically an enormous waste of the largest undeveloped parcel of land in the city of Tacoma. Take another look at the statistics. 1.9 million square feet of building space is equivalent to about 44 acres. What this means is that only one-quarter of the site will actually be covered by buildings. The rest will most likely be parking lots, turnaround areas, staging areas, and infrastructure.
Tacoma can do much better than this.
C Christy May 15, 2008
Maybe they’ll make a couple of cutouts in the concrete for flowers? I think pink would look nice against the acres and acres of asphalt.
O OriginalCin May 15, 2008
Um…yeah. Is all of this a good thing? Nearly 1,000 truck trips a day?! Is that supposed to be a favorable prediction or something to be appologized for later? Property value in that area, I think, will totally tank. Who wants to live next to the industrial park, which is what this will be the equivalent to? Sigh and shrug.
R richard May 15, 2008
Maybe Soundbuilt homes could build 600 marginally constructed town homes on the parcel. That would provide housing for hundreds who could commute to work outside of Tacoma.
Or maybe its time to gentrify South Tacoma? I hear the views are spectacular.
What it should be developed into is a place to locate all of the auto sprawl along S Tacoma Way. A giant “auto complex” that would then allow S Tacoma Way to realize its potential.
D Dave May 17, 2008
I share some uneasiness about this, but I’m not sure if I agree with the comments above.
Honestly, the corridor of STW from S. 38th St. north and east to Pacific Ave. and the I-5 interchange there is underutilized. 1000 truck trips sounds like a lot but really isn’t when you spread it out over a 10 hour day.
Of greater concern to me is that this means there will never ever be an extension of S. 38th to reach University Place. That’s bad for the Tacoma Mall and the surrounding retail zone, bad for people who live near or drive on S. 56th and S. 72nd (they need relief!!), bad for University Place residents… it’s just… BAD. There hasn’t been sufficient east-west arterial capacity since the 1960s, and now it appears that all hope of improvement will be extinguished. It is utterly beyond me why the City has ignored this problem.
On the upside, that $1.5M figure seems low to me. I don’t think it takes into account the ancillary businesses — lunch spots, coffee stands, convenience stores, etc. — that will surely spring up around this development. And 500 employees — even at modest wages; even if many of them live elsewhere — represent a big chunk of change being plopped down in the middle of the city.
So, on the whole, this is a Good Thing. Even if there are some flaws in the plan, which there clearly are.
M Mofo from the Hood May 17, 2008
• 500+ on-site jobs.
• 100’s of truckers and their infrastructure web.
• 100’s of supporting infrastructure jobs of various degrees of significance that are directly or indirectly linked to the site, as well as the off-hours private lives of the employees.
This is a complex and stable form of much needed employment and tax revenue.
B broadweezy May 18, 2008
I generally agree with Dave as well. However, I’m not conviced that 38th Street is a critical connection to have between the Mall and University Place. Sure if you looked at a map there appears to be an obvious east-west gap. However, I’m not convinced that 56th/72nd/Center/19th are congested enough under existing traffic volumes to warrant a street extension of 38th, nor am I convinced that future growth in UPlace/Lakewood would cause future traffic volumes to surge so greatly and warrant a future 38th extension. True, the east-west connectivity between Tacoma and UPlace/Lakewood has been lacking since the 60’s, largely due to the rise of suburbanism and its dependency on cul-de-sacs. But having a 38th street connection for the sake of having a connection doesn’t seem like it would provide any better function of mobility that the exisitng 56th/72nd street corridors already provide.
C Christy May 18, 2008
I really don’t think every single open space has to be developed, especially if it’s 90% paved. Has anyone driven by the many vacant warehouse buildings in Nalley Valley lately?
You’re right (#6) ProLogis will breath new life into Tacoma business. I’m sure Hooters will have to hire extra staff.
I agree that the city could never build a 38th street through-way, it would have to go through a dense hill of apartments and then through the dump. Actually the Enviro House and recycling facility, plus a ton of businesses, only to be rewarded with a 25 mph crawl through Fircrest. That would be hard to do, but have you ever driven on 56th or 72nd at 5pm somewhere between Pac Ave and Bridgeport? That’s about a 25 minute commute for 15 miles, as long as it takes to drive to Seattle with no traffic! Brutal.
D drizell May 20, 2008
For those motorists trying to hijack this thread with complaints about traffic, I have one suggestion: don’t live in or go to Lakewood, University Place or Fircrest in the first place. Live in the city and start riding your bikes more. I rode my bike from 56th and I-5 at rush hour once. It took about 5 minutes to get to South Tyler. Just avoid the major streets and it’s a breeze. And you’ll avoid all that new truck traffic…