Tacoma receives 4 offers to reinvent Old City Hall
Four Puget Sound developers met an October deadline to propose a vision of Old City Hall’s future.
Now Tacoma officials will take a few weeks to evaluate the pitches: a boutique hotel, office spaces, a project by Portland developer McMenamins, and a high-end bar and antique gallery.
Boutique hotel
Grace Pleasants with Tacoma’s The Boulevard Group, proposes a renovation of the 122-year-old iconic building into a 110-room boutique hotel with a covered swimming pool. It would be operated by the Connecticut-based Starwood hotel chain, which has more than 1,200 properties worldwide. She has teed up Starwood’s Aloft by W for the space, a hotel that advertises affordable style and caters to a tech-savvy clientele that values music and artistic expression. “We have been looking for a site in Tacoma to put this brand — well over two years now.
Office project
Daniels Real Estate of Seattle has a track record of historic renovation projects, including Seattle’s Starbucks Center.
In its proposal to Tacoma, Daniels envisions offices on several floor of Old City Hall. But the developers need more information from the city about the building’s mechanical systems
McMenamins mystery
Earlier this year, Brian McMenamin told The News Tribune that the Portland company’s Elks project in downtown Tacoma could open in spring 2017. The Elks project will follow on the heels of McMenamins’ just-completed renovation of Bothell’s Anderson School.
McMenamins bought the former Elks Temple property in 2009, a stone’s throw from Old City Hall.
A McMenamins representative declined to share the company’s proposal for Old City Hall.
Ralph Lauren store and bar
A fourth offer has been presented by former state Sen. Larry Faulk of Steilacoom, who envisions Old City Hall as home to a Ralph Lauren polo bar and retail store and M.S. Rau Antiques gallery.
According to Faulk’s proposal, he plans to pay for it with money from the Ralph Lauren organization, a $5 million ask from the state capital budget, money from the grandchildren of the Mars candy fortune and 100 people from the Tacoma area who would each invest $100,000.