Did you know the man who sold Tacoma as the "City of Destiny" made his mark as a real estate agent. Sure enough, Allen C. Mason, showed up in Tacoma in 1885 with $2 and change in his pocket. A year later he made $10,000 in real estate, then proceeded to sell Tacoma to the U.S. as the City of Destiny.

He sold many of the original homesteads in Tacoma's north end, and the Mason name lives on as a middle school, church and street. Now, the Proctor Business District and Tacoma Historical Society have teamed on a fundraising project to erect a bronze statue and memorial to Mason. By the end of the year, the groups hope to transform a corner of the Proctor district outside the Wheelock Library into an ode to Mason.

As a kickoff of the public fundraising campaign, former Tacoma City Councilman Tom Stenger will provide a historic look at the man who made Tacoma famous. His presentation, "Allen C. Mason: Tacoma's Super Salesman" will take place at 7 p.m. Monday in the Olympic Room of the Main Library, at South 11th Street and Tacoma Avenue. Admission is free.

Sumner Tractor & Equipment Co.'s fancy showroom on Washington 410 east of downtown Sumner will be the home of a car dealership by next fall.

The tractor dealership will likely move to a temporary location -- perhaps the old Riverside Ford showroom -- while it builds a new home, said Denise Haase, the tractor dealer's marketing manager.

The move out is scheduled to happen by August 1.

A Honda dealership is scheduled to move into the tractor dealership's six-year-old home. The tractor dealership's showroom sits next door to Riverside Ford's new store on 166th Avenue East.

Sumner Tractor's owner, Paul Mosby, got an offer from the car dealership that was too attractive to turn down, said Haase.

Any new building that the tractor dealership builds will have to be a high quality structure, Haase said, to meet the standards of John Deere, whose tractors Sumner Tractor sells.

A series of three one-day workshops aimed at women in the construction industry begins March 21st.

The series, “Female Forces in Construction,” is sponsored by th U.S. Small Business Administration, William M. Factory Incubator and South Sound Washington Business Center.

Each workshop will feature presentations by local business leaders in the construction industry. The presentations will include:

• A panel of experts in the construction contracting field;
• An open forum with topics including credibility in the industry, creating a company’s public persona, identifying subcontractors and working with mentors;
• Opportunities to meet and network with women in both the commercial and residential construction industry.

When: Friday, March 21st, 9:30 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Where: Tacoma’s William M. Factory Small Business Incubator, 1423 E. 29th St., 3rd Floor
Cost: $100 per session or $250 for the full series (Mar. 21, June 13, Oct. 17)
Registration: Pre-registration for the March session closes on March 19. Call 253-680-7770 or write infosswbc@seattlccd.com for further information.

The branding marriage between the Tacoma-born rockers The Ventures and the DuPont-based financial institution Venture Bank continues next Monday as the band is admitted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

To celebrate, the bank is throwing a party.

The doors open at 7 p.m. at the Liberty Theater at 116 W. Main St. in Puyallup for a free large-screen viewing of the official induction ceremony as it takes place live at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City. Features at the party include a raffle, no-host bar and food, and the “special guest appearance” of an undisclosed, well, special guest.

The bank has partnered its brand with the band since 2005, and along with the Hall of Fame honor, The Ventures this year celebrate their 50th year in music.

And for those of you who like rumors: Down the line – sometime soon – look for an appearance of the Ventures (and a few other local special guests) at an as-yet-unnamed baseball stadium in Tacoma.

Seattle hotel developer Hotel Concepts has posted a new drawing for its proposed Holiday Inn Express hotel on the site of the former Heidelberg Brewery.

Hotel Concepts Principal Han Kim said the drawing is still a preliminary concept.

The hotel company is meeting with the city's Landmarks Preservation officer Reuben McKnight next week to test whether the new design concept is a step in the right direction.

The main difference between the present design and that of the original concept is that the building is now clad with brick. The windows have also been modified to
present a more historic appearance.

Kim said he doesn't expect to break ground in June as he had originally hoped because of the delays in the permitting process.

"We'll be lucky to have all of our permits by then," he said.

In the meanwhile, Hotel Concepts has applied for a demolition permit for the parts of the old brewery that it and its partners own. The brewery's sign has already been removed because of safety considerations.

The new design appears to be much more in the style of the brick warehouse buildings that are its immediate neighbors in the old warehouse district and at the University of Washington Tacoma.

Holiday Inn Express front elevation

Holiday Inn Express south elevation

Hotel Concepts wants to build a 160-room Holiday Inn Express on the Brewery site to serve both university and convention business.

A recent Dan Voelpel column in The News Tribune outlined the case for new hotels because of convention opportunities lost locally because of a shortage of hotel rooms.

The new drawing by an Oregon architect is a significant departure from the freeway-style motel drawing the developers initially vetted with Tacoma Landmarks Preservation Commission.