Pacific Avenue Open Space

Not that kind of open space. I'm referring to the vacant commercial office space downtown along Pacific Avenue -- specifically, the concentration between South 9th and South 12th Streets. Personally, it's hard to miss: the Index's offices are in the Washington Building, at the corner of 11th and Pacific. But you may have noticed it, too. I wrote about this so-called "Dead Zone" three years ago for the Index.I also wrote about downtown Tacoma's commercial real estate scene two years ago for a local magazine.

This morning, I grabbed the camera and went on another mini photo safari -- this time focusing on the number of vacancies in an area of town where colorful brokerage signs hang in windows like the jerseys of rival sports teams. I know it's a tough economy. On a more promising front, Pacific Plaza construction (just south of this area) appears to be making steady progress. If you have any thoughts on the topic, feel free to comment.

Here are my observations.

928 Pacific Avenue -- The ups-and-downs of this space have been well documented elsewhere . . .

936 Pacific Avenue -- The name on the door makes this vacancy pretty much self-explanatory . . .

1120 Pacific Avenue -- Ticor Title has relocated, but a sign in the window notes the Master Builders Association is still on the third floor . . .

1126 Pacific Avenue -- I can't recall what was here. The vault makes me think perhaps a bank . . .

950 Pacific Avenue -- It must be tough when there's a huge street-level vacancy in the same building as the chamber of commerce headquarters . . .

Misc. Pacific Avenue -- A couple photos where addresses were unavailable or I failed to note . . .

comments [25] | posted under Commercial Vacancy, Downtown, Tacoma

Comments

by Erik on 4/1/2009 @ 3:41pm	Yeah. That's sad. Retail occupancy at the ground level is a critical issue rather than just office vacancy rate. I wrote a piece in the Tribune a few years ago that mentioned that Jane Jacobs would be far more concerned with street level vacancy rate: ebjornson2.googlepages.com/JanJacobsOpEd...
by Thorax O'Tool on 4/1/2009 @ 4:56pm	What's the cost of said retail space? I mean, if the Rust Bldg charges $150/sq ft, is it a wonder why it's empty?
by NineInchNachos on 4/1/2009 @ 5:27pm	did that little storefront in the pythian temple in the alley ever get filled? I saw paper in the windows on a recent trip to the library. thats good right?
by NineInchNachos on 4/1/2009 @ 5:28pm	PS artifex is still looking to fill the bottom space in our historic 1888 building
by Mofo from the Hood on 4/1/2009 @ 5:56pm	First I want to say that Erik B. has before offered some interesting contributions to the urban renewal conversation, my past favorite being the "Tacoma Then and Now" website link. This Jane Jacobs overview offers an introduction to someone with a common sense approach; it isn't necessarily controversial advice. Jacob's is more of a stable signpost rather than a weathercock that turns whichever way the wind is blowing. So, I would agree with Erik's last sentence of his article, which is an appeal to principles rather than reliance on manipulative marketing schemes. People are sensitive to sales approaches and will offer resistance until enough reliable information is put forth in order to allow a measured decision. Pick your project around downtown Tacoma, whether it was Broadway Plaza or Park Plaza North or Tollefson Plaza–somebody persuaded somebody that these projects represented forward thinking. History has shown that the majority of the public thinks otherwise. Regarding these photos shown above, which are all storefronts on Pacific Avenue, I'm going to ask a commonsense question. With all the businessmen in Tacoma, including the chamber of commerce, and commercial realtors, and city agencies that specialize in economic development, as well as trained legal negotiators aka lawyers–with all these learned people that daily interact within networks of contacts–At what point will commerce resume? How is it that compromises cannot be made to generate commerce now?
by fredo on 4/1/2009 @ 6:37pm	A very good posting. Folks, this is what first time visitors see when they visit Tacoma. It's shameful that large corridors of any downtown would be allowed to atrophy like this. Incidentally, the photos only showed Pacific Ave. There are other streets around downtown that are just about the same. Mofo I had pretty much the same reaction. Why can't Tacoma's movers and shakers fill this space? Lower the rental price to a level that can't be refused.
by NineInchNachos on 4/1/2009 @ 7:08pm	a lot of these places use rent to pay down massive loans. OR need a tenant with a specific rent to qualify for a massive loan.
by NineInchNachos on 4/1/2009 @ 7:09pm	as a building owner downtown laura hanan could enlighten us all
by jenyum on 4/1/2009 @ 9:05pm	The Tacoma Public Schools could create an arts middle school downtown. Oh wait, there's no money for that...
by scout on 4/2/2009 @ 12:03am	Being a building owner has defined me for the past ten years and has given me purpose and pride, stress that I would have never dreamed I could tolerate, and a strong dose of hubris. Managing and maintaining my property is an ongoing struggle to stay in the present moment and realize that all current situations, dramas, and circumstances, and my feelings and reactions to them, are impermanent and don't define me. It is like taking a snapshot of the sky - one day it might be crystal clear and cloudless; the next, turbulent with dark thunderheads lined up on the horizon. Any enlightenment I have gleaned as a building owner is the lesson I learn and re-learn each time I am brought to my knees in frustration, fear, and pain when I have to again accept the fact that I am not running the show. What I can share is from a little book called “The Four Agreements”, which is a basic code of conduct for life based on ancient Toltec wisdom. The agreements are: Be Impeccable with Your Word Don’t Take Anything Personally Don’t Make Assumptions Always Do your Best For me, trying to stick to the agreements keeps me plenty busy!
by Dave_L on 4/2/2009 @ 12:38am	Good book. I should read it again. (And finish The Book of Awakening.) R.R., the Pythain alley space is being cleaned up and may even get some work done on it because there have been a couple of groups interested in it. And even if those don't pan out, the work had to be done. I've been out of the loop a few weeks, though.
by boearc on 4/2/2009 @ 7:51am	Step 1: Fill-up the empty storefront with art. www.exit133.com/4633/imagine-tacoma-art-...
by fredo on 4/2/2009 @ 8:02am	Scout you gave us an impressionistic view of what it's like to be a property owner. So what would you do to get all this open space occupied?
by DumpsterDivingDiva on 4/2/2009 @ 10:32am	@boearc This is what I did at the Winthrop Hotel Apts last year. Every time I would walk to Commerce Teriyaki I would walk by 4 empty windows with dead plants. I thought to myself, I would love to put my art and store items in these windows to spruce them up. Plus, rotate local artist. Well, all I had to do was ask. The manager was very happy that someone wanted to do something with the Winthrop Windows. So, it never hurts to ask. So with that being said..............Who would like to do a Frost Park Chalk Off display in one of the windows? It would be so cool since it's right across the street. Deidre
by scout on 4/2/2009 @ 10:52am	@Fredo “So what would you do to get all this open space occupied?” Landlords and potential tenants need to negotiate, compromise, and brainstorm new uses of empty storefronts, pair up with other businesses to reduce risk, and demand (because asking/pleading/whining rarely works) that the city and other support businesses (such as “community” banks that have no real sense of what the word means) do their part to support local business. Nine years ago after my family renovated my building – we had a beautiful space in a rather scary neighborhood where no one else wanted to open a business. I had to run outside during business hours and shoo people away that were drinking/peeing/panhandling/drug-dealing in front of my building in broad daylight. Then there was the three-alarm fire day when the drug dealer ran up Pacific Ave with his head on fire after his meth lab exploded. The good old days – Tacoma has come a long way! Out of desperation I opened up my art gallery at street level in 2001 just to get people to come inside and see what we had done with our beautiful old building. I invited Tacoma City Council and the Tacoma Actor’s Guild leaders to host events (free) in our new space surrounded by original art. My boyfriend got the idea that a wine bar would be a cool business to share the gallery space, Vin Grotto was born, and I had my first tenant. Landlords should maintain an attitude of pride of ownership at all times and keep their buildings looking inviting e.g. putting up local artwork or even adding furniture, particularly if the interior of their space can be seen at street level. Landlords should work with and support other businesses nearby by having similar operating hours (if possible) and displaying local business literature. Some businesses also have great complimentary goals/products/services and can co-host events that bring in more people than each could do individually. Landlords most constantly adapt to what is happening in the community and economy. When I could not lease my two new apartments three years ago I invested in some nice furnishings, linens, dishes etc and marketed the spaces as vacation rentals – which was very successful and brought in better income than I ever could get with traditional leases. Those units have literature from the surrounding businesses and complimentary incentives to get my tenants to visit them. When the economy tanked in late 2008 and people stopped traveling as much, I re-grouped and focused on corporate executives on temporary employment stays in Tacoma. Even in a bad economy, people still do temporary employment stints in cities like Tacoma. All of my residential units are currently occupied. The City needs to do its part by having creative and forward thinking leadership with follow through. Frequently petty politics, good old –boys favoritism and stagnant public policy stall downtown activity which is the death knell in an fledgling area trying to put its best foot forward. The City does not like it when outsiders come in and show them up as Tim Quigg did when he pointed out, with the full support of the community, that Tacoma did in fact want and need a high-end hotel to anchor the Theater District. If the City would have stuck with the Quiqq group, the Winthrop project would have been well on it’s way to being complete. Instead we have the new “Financial District” anchored by the Winthrop albatross and a landmark clock that has been frozen for years. Can you say, “Time is money?” The city hyper focuses on slogans, consultant reports, and worrying about being considered the art mecca of the West Coast or establishing a new Financial District when they still haven’t implemented a rational parking policy and can’t apply the pressure needed to get its historic clock, seen by everyone that visits the city, running again. Now the convention center is faltering and has had a direct hand in the death of several surrounding businesses. Why didn’t the city focus on getting additional boutique hotels built that would have supported the convention center and surrounding businesses? Last but not least is the personal aspect of doing business. If you decide to start a business and occupy one of the many empty spaces currently available in downtown Tacoma, thoroughly research your business, know that you most likely won’t break even for at least two years, treat those you do business with professionally and with respect, and honor your contracts. If you can’t adhere to these basic tenets then don’t begin the endeavor because, as a small business owner, you will work mega hours with little to show for it in the early years. If you decide to lease to a tenant, fully research their business plan and how they plan to survive in the first five years of building the business. Get everything in writing in a solid lease, have an attorney review it, and have the lease personally guaranteed by a tenant who has assets. This is insurance against (but not a guarantee) weasel tenants breaking their lease after they realize how much time, money, and energy it takes to operate and grow a business. My favorite business story is a conversation I had with a former tenant that broke their lease. My tenant told me candidly that the idea to walk out on her contract was given to her by another local business owner – that business owner now is a city employee working in the Community and Economic Development Department.
by fredo on 4/2/2009 @ 11:48am	Thanks for some good candid observations Scout.
by scout on 4/2/2009 @ 12:22pm	You're welcome ;-)
by ensie on 4/2/2009 @ 3:07pm	The one pic of the empty location under the Tacoma Chamber of Commerce - that's pretty telling.
by KevinFreitas on 4/2/2009 @ 4:06pm	Wow, great insight scout, thanks. Just the idea of a building owner having pride in the place is a huge one. I'd like to know, however, how many of the vacant spots in Todd's pics above are owned by someone from Tacoma versus someone just sitting on a building like it's a piece on their Monopoly board gathering money when someone happens to land on their spot? Wouldn't it be amazing if the City could back a news-making, revolutionary idea something like this: gather every owner of a vacant spot into a room and get them to agree that if they sign leases on their spaces for 5 year terms that the first year would only cost a tenant $1. Or how 'bout an eBay like system to fill empty space but in reverse where a tenant (like Ms. Jossy, let's say) comes along, says what they need, then landlords/owners/brokers vie for their business in a bidding process where the lowest offer wins?
by NineInchNachos on 4/2/2009 @ 4:11pm	how about tacoma becomes a city-state and out-of-towner owned buildings are nationalized using eminent domain laws.
by scout on 4/2/2009 @ 6:11pm	You guys are pretty biased. How about if we building owners give a dollar lease to people like Angela and you convince the banks that hold the mortgages we are responsible for to adjust/drop their interest rates because we are making a contribution to our community? This stuff doesn't happen in a vacuum. We need to stop thinking in terms of us versus them. I can't tell you how many times I've been treated like "the man"....the "capitalist pig" trying to make a "killing" with my (2) condos... whoa. As Joni Mitchell wrote in the '70s - " I am a lonely painter...I live in a box of paints...." but I also have to come out of the cave now and then and be a business woman and eke out a living. People are all on board for cooperative efforts until they have to make a personal commitment.
by NineInchNachos on 4/2/2009 @ 9:34pm	i'd be interested to help spearhead any art in vacant windows squatters army. Maybe that could be a community CLAW outreach project
by Lance Kagey on 4/3/2009 @ 3:53pm	I think Beautiful Angle might be interested in creating visual panels to fill vacant storefronts creating sidewalk galleries. But the long-term solution will involve finding ways for retail to be invited back into the downtown core. A lot of the stores that are out at TAC-MALL have signed exclusive agreements to not put stores in our downtown core. This creates an us and them that is hard to overcome.
by Erik on 4/4/2009 @ 1:12pm	A lot of the stores that are out at TAC-MALL have signed exclusive agreements to not put stores in our downtown core. This creates an us and them that is hard to overcome. Yep. That's what I hear too, a conspiracy of sorts against downtown. The leases should have been required not to have this prohibition when the Tacoma Mall was approved. Now downtown is prohibited in many ways of even being able to compete.
by AngelaJossy on 4/4/2009 @ 1:54pm	Me and my business partners plan to find a place where our home rent covers the cost of the retail space too because we know that the first year or two the business most likely won't be profitable. We each already have income from our freelance work so we thought that by combining our incomes and sharing a live/work space we can sustain the retail space for as long as it takes to make it profitable. Plus we plan to offer services to the community in that space so our win is everyone's win. So far the feedback we are getting is very encouraging. We just need a building. Also, we've been approached by a few other women who want to live and work with us. I feel confident that if we had a building that was slightly larger than what we initially had in mind, we could find enough women artists to fill it. Please keep your ear to the ground for us. We need 8-10 bedrooms, a common livingroom, kitchen and bathrooms and a retail space on the ground floor where we can have events, classes and sell our merchandise.
Post Reply:	Email * Password * Remember me on this computer OR Sign Me Up!

About

A blog following news and features published in the Tacoma Daily Index newspaper. All Photos Copyright (C) Todd Matthews / Tacoma Daily Index.

3/5	Tacoma's Homeless Goddess of Commerce [25]
3/1	Up Above Tacoma [10]
2/22	Tacoma Streetcar Field Trip [4]
2/2	New Pac Ave Retailer [6]
1/8	A New Link Light Rail Station? [59]

TDI -- Reporter's Blog

Apr. 1, 2009 at 2:00pm

About

Recent Posts