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…)
Lincoln Gives Tacoma Some Love
Is it our beautiful, diverse architecture that brings the car companies to town to film commercials? Well one car company, Lincoln, took it a bit further and features Downtown Tacoma front and center on its website for the Lincoln MKS.
Click the link to check out Tacoma… and the Lincoln MKS
(make sure you move your mouse over the arrows next to the car)
Another Bail Bonds Joint in the Theater District
Word on the street is another bail bonds storefront is coming to the Theater District. I am told Scott Free Bail Bonds is moving into the former Tacoma Events Commission location at 759 Market Street. If you recall this location is in between City Hall and Aladdin Bail Bonds. I am sure my many friends who live in the neighborhood will be thrilled!
The building is owned by City of Destiny LLC who’s registered members include Pat Nagel and Carole Holder of The Hub, Harmon Brewery, and Sound & Shore Properties fame.
Previous blog post from when Aladdin moved into the neighborhood:
Victory Music Becomes…
Aladdin Bail Bonds Move in Downtown
New Restaurant in the St. Helens?
It looks like the St. Helens neighborhood in Downtown Tacoma may be seeing a new restaurant soon. A company called Jericho Development, LLC has applied for a beer/wine restaurant liquor license. The restaurants name is Minoela and will be located in the former One Heart Cafe location at the Merlino Arts Center. Not much more info on the place other than that.
I am also working on a few other neighborhood restaurant rumors, so stay tuned!
Design Architect Moving to Tacoma’s Brewery District
On Sunday Dan Voelpel wrote and article in the TNT about the City of Tacoma’s plans to transform the Brewery District in Downtown Tacoma into a neighborhood of the arts. Last year Angelou Economics did a study on Downtown Tacoma and gave recommendations on what the city should be trying to attract to Downtown. Creative arts and deign was one of the targeted fields.
From Sunday’s TNT article:
“Angelou Economics defines the creative arts and design sector as software design, film production, theater production, music recording, interior and graphic design, advertising, marketing, commercial photography, architecture and urban design. It also includes niche manufacturing of handmade jewelry, glass, ceramic, wooden and metal arts.”
Right before I read the article I found out that a municipal design architecture/engineer company will be moving to the Brewery District from their current downtown location on Broadway Plaza. KPG purchased the warehouse building on the corner of South 25th Street and Jefferson Ave. for $2,000,000 earlier this year. They plan to move into the building later this year. The building is also the location of the Robert Daniel Gallery. KPG is said to be only taking up half of the building. KPG’s new space will be across the street from Commencement Bay Coffee Co., next to the Galleria Condos, and only a block away from the new location of Rainier Connect.
KPG also has an office in the South Lake Union neighborhood of Seattle.
