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Rescue plan arises for falling Luzon

TACOMA: New developer wants to buy and rehabilitate building

JOHN GILLIE; The News Tribune



A new would-be rescuer emerged Tuesday for downtown Tacoma’s historic but structurally crumbling Luzon Building.

Tacoma contractor and developer Igor Kunista told the City Council on Tuesday that he wants to begin shoring up the leaning brick walls of the six-story building this week if he can buy it from its present owner.

But in the meantime, the city’s Public Works Department on Tuesday afternoon closed South 13th Street and planned to close one southbound lane of Pacific Avenue adjacent to the building to protect the public.

The city fears the building, inundated by rains for decades, could collapse. The building’s north wall is already leaning some 5 inches toward South 13th Street.

If Kunitsa’s plan falls through or if building owner The Gintz Group can’t find new financing to rehabilitate the building itself, the city may step in to install reinforcements to keep the building intact.

News of Kunitsa’s interest came as both Gintz and the city were searching desperately for financially feasible ways to save the building, designed by famed Chicago architects Daniel Burnham and John Root.

Economic development project manager Ellen Walkowiak told the council that the city has been working with Kunitsa to remove potential roadblocks to the rehab project.

Several plans to find a productive reuse of the 118-year-old former bank building have been proposed over the last few years, but none proved doable. Those plans called for converting the building to corporate apartments, to condominiums or to offices and retail spaces.

Kunitsa’s plan calls for him to invest $2.35 million in cash in the historic building. The remainder of the $6 million in construction cost would be paid with a $2 million loan from Wells Fargo Bank and a $1.65 million low-interest loan from the City of Tacoma.

The city had offered that same loan to the Gintz Group, but the Tacoma developer has been unable to find tenants to rent the offices in the rehabilitated structure. Gintz’ banker wants signed leases for most of the building before agreeing to provide financing. Robert Hailey, a consultant to Kunitsa, claims several tenants have shown strong interest in signing up for office space if Kunitsa rehabs the structure.

Kunitsa, owner of Serpanok Construction Inc., said after the council study session that he believes he can rehabilitate the Luzon more economically than Gintz because he would be both the building’s developer and its general contractor. Gintz would have to hire an outside general contractor.

Kunitsa, an immigrant from Ukraine, has lived in Tacoma for 18 years. He said he has investment properties in South Carolina as well as his Tacoma-based construction company.

That construction company has worked on several local high schools, on the rehabilitation of Fort Nisqually and on the overhaul of the Metropolitan Development Council building downtown, according to the company’s Web site.

Gintz executive Ron Gintz said Kunitsa and Hailey came to The Gintz Group last year expressing interest in buying the building but didn’t follow through with an offer.

Gintz said he doesn’t want to throw cold water on a deal that could save the historic structure, but that he has reservations that Kinitsa could acquire the building, get permits and make the necessary financial arrangements within the next few days or weeks.

Any deal hinges on Kunitsa and The Gintz Group agreeing on the building’s purchase price. The Gintz Group bought the structure for $83,000, but Gintz claims it has invested hundreds of thousands more in design, structural engineering and historic research on the structure. The Gintz Group’s asking price for the building is now $500,000.

If the group doesn’t sell the building, it potentially could be liable for the costs of any engineering work and construction the city might do to make the structure safe.

The Gintz Group is working with a nonprofit agency to lease part of the building. If that lease goes through, the group might be able to obtain construction financing for the structure.

Council members at the session expressed strong interest in Kinitsa’s proposal. Deputy mayor Julie Anderson said special recognition should also go to The Gintz Group for its efforts that have kept the building alive during a critical period in its existence.

Past Stories:

Gravity not only force against Luzon
But if gravity wins soon and the 118-year-old building is taken down as a hazard to public safety, it also means the idiots win. Those would be the Seattle managers of Cornerstone Development who determined in the early 1990s that the key to the renaissance of Tacoma was the demolition of a block of Pacific Avenue commercial buildings between South 13th and 15th streets.


Tacoma Luzon Building deemed ‘Life Safety Hazard’
The historic downtown Tacoma Luzon Building poses a “Life Safety Hazard” and may soon collapse onto the streets and sidewalks below.

A presentation Tuesday to a Tacoma City Council study session offered a look at the state of the building, built in 1890 and designed by Chicago architects Daniel Burnham and John Root.