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Marce Edwards is the business editor. She has been at The News Tribune for seven years and has written about technology and big businesses in the South Sound including Weyerhaeuser and Russell. Before moving to Tacoma, she worked at The Idaho Statesman in Boise. She is a Northwest native who likes to garden and refuses to use an umbrella. She lives in Tacoma with her husband and two kids.
C.R. Roberts is a Tacoma native. Before joining The News Tribune, he worked as a freelance writer and part-time cowhand on a cattle ranch in Northern Idaho. He writes about small business, personal finance and other business issues.
John Gillie writes about the aerospace and airline industries, commercial development and consumer issues. During his 30-year-tenure at The News Tribune he has covered issues as diverse as the Native American fishing rights disputes, crime and the courts, the wood products industry and energy. He lived in Tacoma with his family for 25 years, but now lives in Kent because his wife heads a five-state non-profit foundation headquartered in Ballard, and it only seemed a sensible compromise to make considering their workplaces are 40 miles apart.
Kelly Kearsley has been a business reporter at The News Tribune since 2005. She covers the Port of Tacoma and international trade. Being born and raised in Spokane she’s used to living in cities with inferiority complexes and, in fact, prefers it. Prior to working at The News Tribune, she spent three years as a reporter for The Bulletin in Bend, Oregon and another year working stints for The Associated Press and Seattle Times. She graduated from Pacific Lutheran University. She lives in Tacoma with her husband and miniature schnauzer.
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Count downtown Tacoma's historic former Elks Temple among the new casualties of the country's latest economic malaise.
Williams & Dame, the Portland developer that bought the monumental building at 565 Broadway a year ago with the idea of returning it to its former glory, acknowledged today it's putting the building on the sales block.
"There's no market," said Williams & Dame principal Homer Williams. "That pretty much sums it all up."
Williams said his company explored a variety of adaptive reuses for the four-story former fraternal gathering place and lot north of the building, but found no use that made economic sense under present market conditions.
"We looked at condos, apartments, offices, you name it," he said. "Nothing could be financed in the current market."
"It's too bad," said Williams. "We like Tacoma. But I don't think things are going to get better for a couple of more years. When it does, we'll be back."
During the little more than a year that Williams & Dame owned the 1915-vintage building, the company removed a concrete-block kitchen annex that was not part of the original structure and whose low roof had provided an entry path for transients and vandals.
The company patched up holes in the roof that allowed rain to flood the third floor ballroom and cleaned up debris from years of neglect.
Commercial realtor NAI Puget Sound properties will market the building, said Bob Levin, manager of Tacoma Community and Economic Development Department's private capital division. No asking price has been set pending an appraisal, said Williams.
The city had fought in court with the building's prior owner, a California investor, since 2000 over the building's deteriorating condition. When he died in 2005, the city brokered a sale of the structure with his family.
Tacoma Mayor Bill Baarsma was surprised and disappointed to hear the news of the sale. Along with the historic Winthrop Hotel and the Luzon Building on Pacific Avenue, the Elks was among the landmark buildings the city had hoped to see rehabilitated.
"We always knew this would be challenging," said the mayor. "I remain optimistic that the building will find a new use once the market recovers."
COMMENTS:
The Elks is in the middle of my cool but bizarre, historic/modern Russell campus plan that also includes a few other beloved icons in that north corner of downtown.
Check out this one-of-a-kind campus:
• A shiny, modern HQ skyscraper in the parking lot across from Old City Hall, next to the Spanish Steps.
• A refurbished Elks for Russell’s open-floor-plan trading floors, if it’s big enough, otherwise offices, servers, mail room, etc.
• A brick pseudo-historic office building in the parking lot next to the Elks.
• A refurbished Old City Hall for yet more offices.
• A parking garage between Old City Hall and the I-705 ramp, possibly with its own ramps.
• A renovated David’s on Broadway for an employees-only restaurant, fitness center, and lounge. Remodel the top story to a ultra-high-end condo for visiting big-wigs to stay in.
• Street, sidewalk, lighting, and landscaping improvements for this whole area.
• A Link extension to this big development, and then up Stadium Way and Division to the 6th Ave restaurant district (and hopefully further).
If Russell was interested in this plan, the city and state would have plenty of allies from the preservationists and Tacoma’s citizenry as a whole, in addition to the business community.
I'm trying to get them to look at Winfield's too.
They could rehab the Elks and knock down Winfield's for their green space/parking.
The Children's Museum as an alternative solution is a really cool idea! Museums don't need many windows, and do need open floor plans. Tall ceilings are a plus too, which I assume the Elks has, and character is through the roof! Best yet, who would oppose an idea that would save the building and give the CM a long-term solution?
What if, instead of knocking down Winfield's, they replace the parking lot between the two buildings with a two-story parking garage, one of the stories at ground level with a nice entrance and the other underground, and then put the green space and a cool playground on top of it?
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