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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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Two years after it won a competition to build a mostly residential building on Tacoma's Thea Foss Waterway, Prium Companies got approval this week for a new design for a smaller building featuring primarily office space.
Blame the downturn in the housing market, said Don Meyer, executive director of the Foss Waterway Development Authority. The authority's board approved the new design Wednesday.
Because of the changes, Prium must reapply to the state Department of Ecology for an amendment to its original shoreline development permit.
Construction on Prium's building, between Albers Mill and the State Route 509 cable-stay bridge, should start next spring, Meyer said.
Prium's winning project in May 2006 stirred some controversy because longstanding plans for the site, advertisements for proposals and public support called for an office tower. Yet the Foss Board selected Prium, which proposed:
• 93,371 square feet of residential space (65 percent of the whole project)
• 26,785 square feet of office (16 percent)
• 11,846 square feet of retail (8.5 percent)
• 12,500 square feet of common area (8.5 percent)
• 252 parking stalls
At the time, Prium and the Foss Board argued that market conditions favored financing for the hot residential market. Ironically, the new mix of uses will look more like what the historic plans for the Foss envisioned:
• 40, 750 square feet of residential (29 percent)
• 80,550 square feet of office (58 percent)
• 10,410 square feet of retail (8 percent)
• 6,500 square feet of common area (5 percent)
• 288 parking spaces
During current market conditions, Meyer said, Prium should find it easier to get financing for a building with primarily office space.
The new architectural design keeps the previous emphasis on a green, park-like setting and kayak storage but lowers the entrances to the building from the shoreline side to ground level. The previous version had the entrances built up higher similar to developments at the other two residential projects – Thea's Landing and The Esplanade.
