August 9, 2017

$150M Tacoma project starts its first phase: hotel, garage, retail

Design by Ankrom Moisan Architects, image by GC Square USA [enlarge]

A 300-room Marriott is part of the $85 million first phase. The $65 million second phase will add housing and more retail.

Work is officially underway on a $150 million hotel, residential and retail project next to the Greater Tacoma Convention Center.

A groundbreaking was scheduled for Tuesday.

The city of Tacoma recently completed a property sale to Yareton Investment and Management, which is developing the site.

It is the largest privately funded downtown development in Tacoma's history, according to the city.

There will be two phases. The first phase, estimated at $85 million, involves construction of a 300-room Marriott hotel with a 20,000 square feet of meeting rooms and 9,000 square feet of retail. Interstate Hotels & Resorts of Alexandria, Virginia, will be the operator.

A 390-stall parking garage connected to the convention center is also planned.

Ankrom Moisan Architects is the designer, Absher Construction is the general contractor and PCS Structural Solutions is the structural engineer. Other team members include AHBL Engineers, civil engineer, site survey and landscape design; Fehr & Peers, traffic engineer; and Hart Crowser, geotechnical and phase one environmental survey.

Vertical construction is scheduled to begin this fall.

The $65 million second phase will be a 170-unit residential tower with ground-floor retail. The units will be leased or sold as condominiums depending on market demand.

The second phase isn't slated to begin until sometime after the hotel opens, currently pegged for fall 2020.

Yareton is a subsidiary of Shanghai Mintong Real Estate Co., and was a partner in developing the $45 million Four Points by Sheraton hotel in Des Moines, which opened in 2016.

Yareton is participating in the EB-5 investor program, and expects to raise 40 percent of its development cost from foreign investors, mostly from China.