Tacoma Untapped

Puget Sound Pizza Changing Hands

Jake — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 23:46:31 +0000

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?

Honda Commercial To Be Filmed In Downtown

Jake — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 00:11:39 +0000

This Sunday the Theater District and the St. Helens Neighborhood in Downtown Tacoma will see the lights, cameras & cars. Lodestar Films will be filming a Honda TV commercial Sunday, July 18th from 7am to 1pm. Streets affected will be South 7th Street, St. Helens Ave., Market Street & Opera Alley. No parking signs will be in place during those times and an off-duty Tacoma Police Officer will control traffic during filming.

Exterior shots will be filmed along St. Helen’s Ave. between S. 7^th Street and Opera Alley, along S. 7^th Street between St. Helen’s Ave & Broadway and along Opera Alley. A Picture car will drive down the streets while a camera car follows filming the action.

I don’t have info if this will be a regional or national TV commercial but it appears Lodestar Films, based in Hollywood, CA has filmed some national TV commercials for Honda & Acura.

What businesses will we see in the commercial? Puget Sound Pizza? The Mix? Over the Moon Cafe? We will have to wait and see.

Winco Foods Coming To Tacoma?

Jake — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 00:01:20 +0000

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”

Jake — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 01:07:18 +0000

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

Jake — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 18:37:34 +0000

“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!

Major Changes To Elks Project

Jake — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:46:58 +0000

It has been confirmed by multiple sources that there will be some major changes in the Elks/McMenamins project. I have been told that McMenamins has decided a hotel in the Elks building is not feasible due to the lack of windows in the structure. They will however build the hotel part of the project in the lower floors of the adjacent mixed-use building being built by Grace Pleasants and Rick Moses. This will add a few more stories to mixed-use building and possibly force the building to be built as a steel-framed structure instead of wood-frame, if it already wasn’t going to be.

I have not heard what McMenamins plans to do with the space that was slated for the hotel in the Elks building or if the cost to construct the city-owned garage will change in the mixed-use building due to it having to support more floors.

In late February the City of Tacoma, Grace Pleasants & Rick Moses announced that GLY Construction Co. of Bellevue and Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Architects of Seattle will be the design-build team for the mixed-use project.

TNT Article: Tacoma’s Elks Project Takes Big Step

H&M Coming to the Tacoma Mall

Jake — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 02:29:35 +0000

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?

Jake — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 20:59:04 +0000

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.

Another Mixed-Use Project for McCarver

Jake — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:29:06 +0000

A new mixed-use building is being proposed in the McCarver Neighborhood at the southeast corner of South 19th Street & Yakima Ave. O’Connor & Associates, developer of McCarver Village & Gaslamp Terrace, purchased the property in November 2008. The property currently has a brick four-plex on it. The new mixed-use building will house 32 market-rate apartments and a private medical office. The project goes before the Tacoma City Council on Dec. 1st 2009 for its 8 year multi-family tax exemption. The building will be across the street from St. Joseph Medical Center and 2 blocks from the UWT campus boundary. The four-plex currently sits vacant which could mean construction may happen soon.

I am happy to hear that apartments have been added to this project. About a year ago I saw an ad on Craigslist from O’Connor & Associates advertising lease space in a proposed 2 story medical building at the site. This new building will be another gateway building to the growing McCarver Neighborhood.

Chelsea Heights Starts Leasing.. Finally

Jake — Thu, 28 May 2009 21:09:03 +0000

After 3 years in the construction phase, Prium’s Chelsea Heights project near Wright Park will finally see life. The once condo project is now a 78 unit apartment building and can be seen on numerous rental websites. From photos on Craigslist it does appear that some of the finishes have been downgraded from the original plans. The property management company is currently advertising a 2 bedroom unit for $1,150.

Now does anybody know what is going on with the retail space? It almost looks like it is going to be all storage units. You can see a lot of metal wall forms, very close together in the retail space when you drive by.

Last reported on The Biz Buzz in December 2007 : Second Prium Condo Project Goes Rental

Chelsea Heights Apartments

603 South J Street

Tacoma, WA 98405

253-383-3181