Puget Sound Pizza Changing Hands
One of Tacoma’s most popular pizza joints may be under new ownership soon. Puget Sound Pizza located in the St. Helens Neighborhood at 7th & St. Helens Ave. is now under contract for new ownership. The owner, Jim Higgins, says long time employees Martin and Shannon are the buyers of the business. If all goes as well they should own the business within 60 days.
While rumors of the sale have been swirling around the neighborhood for months, the rumors of current owner, Jim Higgins, opening a new spot have been around for longer.
From his Facebook page:
“I’ve got a few ideas for new concepts that I’ve been kicking around. Tacoma has tons of potential (and available spaces) right now
Straight away I’m just gonna take a couple months and do some fun stuff, but eventually I’ll probably (more likely than not) do something similar.”
PSP has great pizza and an always entertaining atmosphere, what would you like to see change? Or change nothing at all?
Winco Foods Coming To Tacoma?
It appears Tacoma may be getting a new grocery store and it looks to be the popular Winco Foods. Furniture Factory Direct is vacating their space at 1913 South 72nd Street in the Tacoma Place shopping center. The building that houses Furniture Factory Direct was purchased in April 2010 for $11,750,000 by 72nd Ave. Partners LLC. One of the managing members of the LLC is the VP/Controller of Winco Foods. The building is 103,000 square feet and is visible from I-5.
Winco Foods was founded in 1967 in Boise, Idaho. It is known for affordable prices and giving its employees an ownership stake in the company. This will be the first Tacoma store for Winco and the 4th in the South Sound with others being in Federal Way, Puyallup and Sumner. A store in Lacey, WA is also in the works.
I will post more information on an opening date when I get it.
Big Whisky Off “Whiskey Row”
The ever fabulous Steph DeRosa just gave us a sneak peak of the new Surreal Ultra Lounge going into the space Club Kokonut was to occupy, the former On The Rocks. Now just off Whiskey Row (Pac Ave. between 9th & 7th) CANS is transforming to Big Whisky Saloon. They are currently hiring for all positions including Country Rock DJs & Beer Tub Babes. They are planning their grand opening for April 30th. No liquor license changes have been posted which is needed with a change in name of the establishment or ownership changes. CANS was owned by the same folks that own Varsity Grill on Broadway.
It is starting to look like nightlife is taking another try in this neighborhood that at one time use to house Destiny’s, The Drake, Club Detour & 7 Cities.
Now we will have Surreal Ultra Lounge, The Matador, Paddy Coyne’s, Meconi’s, Big Whisky, Hell’s Kitchen & The Firwood (???).
You can apply at Big Whisky by submitting your resume to BigWhiskySaloon@gmail.com
Gyros Coming to the UWT
“Retail spaces are empty.” “There are tons of open retail spaces along the UWT strip.” “The retail space in Phillips Hall is available, let’s fill that first then lets talk.”
Ok let’s talk!
University Gyro House is in the process of filling the vacant retail space in UWT’s Phillips Hall at 1914 Pacific Ave. Along with gyros it appears you will also be able to have a nice cold beer, as Nizar LLC has applied for a beer/wine restaurant liquor license.
So will gyros be a good fit for the UWT campus? I think so!
H&M Coming to the Tacoma Mall
The Tacoma Mall announced today via their Twitter account that H&M will be opening in the mall in time for the holiday season. The Tacoma H&M will be 20,000 square feet and located next to the new Sephora store that is under construction. It will be the first store in the South Sound and second largest store in the Puget Sound region. H&M currently has stores in Southcenter, Downtown Seattle & U-Village. Sweden based H&M has around 2,000 stores in 35 countries and is known for affordable fashion for men, women & children. It was not reported how many jobs the new Tacoma H&M store would create.
Out of Stadium & Into 6th Ave. for El Guadalajara?
It appears that the Stadium District El Guadalajara may be moving to the center of the 6th Ave. Business District. Tres Ramos El Guadalajara Inc. has applied for a restaurant liquor license with a new location at 3002 6th Ave. and appears to be taking place of the Neighborhood Market (previously on Tacoma Untapped. A business license check for the current location, on Tacoma Ave. in the Stadium Business District, says it has closed. The building where the Stadium District location was located is owned by X Square Investments II, which is ran by John & Luke Xitco, owners of Asado and Masa. Rumors from a few years ago were that X Group wanted to put an Italian restaurant in the Stadium District building once Guadalajara was gone.
El Guadalajara was recently in the news because they were required to install a sprinkler system in the building due to new nightclub laws but hadn’t done so yet. The Stadium District location has a dance floor in the bar portion of the building.
UPDATE: It appears El Guadalajara may be going into the back section of the building where Neighborhood Market is located.
Former Happy Dragon Location on 6th Ave. Sold
The former Happy Dragon restaurant location on 6th Ave. & Alder Street recently sold for $1,100,000. The two parcels measuring 19,981 square feet are part of the 6th Ave. mixed-use center and are zoned NCX. The new owners are a group that includes architect Ross Deckman of Ross Deckman & Associates and a number of individuals who work at AHBL, a Tacoma based civil/structural engineer, landscape arcitecture, and community planning firm. While no plans are concrete they do plan to look at their options for future development of the site. In the meantime they may try to lease the space to another restaurant as all of the restaurant equipment is still in the building.
(image from Google Maps)
From the looks of the purchase price it appears the property was bought for it’s “land value”. I think the prospect of a future development are pretty good considering the land value purchase and the owner’s portfolios. What would you like to see built at this location? Mixed-use with apartments/condos? Office space with retail similar to Poole’s Corner down the street at Union Ave.? My vote? Mixed-use with apartments and retail. The 6th Ave. area hasn’t seen much in the way of new residential structures in the past few years. With UPS a few blocks away and the popular 6th Ave. corridor right there, I think it would be a great spot for that kind of development.
Lunch Time at Asado
A new lunch option will appear on 6th Ave. starting June 1st. Asado will give the lunch crowd a go and start serving lunch Monday through Firday 11:30am – 2:30pm. Happy Hour will start after lunch at 2:30pm.
The new lunch menu will include: fresh fish Cuban sandwich, Asado cobb salad with smoked mahi and prawns, quinoa bowls with choice of protein, and combos of skewers or sliders and choice of salad.
Can you picture yourself on a nice sunny day having lunch on Asado’s patio? I can!
Asado
2810 6th Ave.
Tacoma, WA 98406
Haub Closes on USPS Parcels
The Haub Brother’s holdings in Tacoma’s Central Business District just got a bit larger. On April 28th the Haub Brother Enterprise Trust closed on two parcels owned by the United States Postal Service. The two parcels located on A Street between 13th and 14th measure 32,600 square feet and are county assessed at $2,674,900. The purchase price was not yet available.
Haub now owns the properties highlighted in red:
The two parcels are key in Haub’s plan for a large highrise development on the site and possibly a new headquarters for Russell Investsments. The City of Tacoma and Haub recently started environmental cleanup and monitoring of the Haub properties and the former Sauro drycleaner site across the street.
Russell HQ proposal:
Minoela Coming Soon
The details are in on the new wine bistro, Minoela, opening in the St Helens neighborhood. As previously reported on Tacoma Untapped , Minoela will be located in the Merlino Art Center building off 6th Ave. and Fawcett Ave. , next to the Grand Cinema.
Q&A with the owners after the jump: (more…)
