September 10, 2015

Tacoma wants new ideas for renovating its Old City Hall

Photo courtesy of the city of Tacoma [enlarge]

The 122-year-old building is at 625 S. Commerce St. In 2017, McMenamins will open a hotel and brewery in the nearby Elks Lodge.

TACOMA — Tacoma wants developers to propose projects that will restore Old City Hall and also make the area around the building more vibrant.

In June, the Tacoma City Council voted to buy Old City Hall for $4 million from The Stratford Co., which was not meeting deadlines to repair the 122-year-old building, located at 625 S. Commerce St.

The city has issued a request for interest from developers asking them to pitch ideas for how to renovate Old City Hall for new uses.

“It is the City's preference to attract uses that create synergy with surrounding development, maximize tax revenues, recoup its investment, result in new jobs and draw pedestrian traffic to the area,” the request for interest states.

Any restoration, the proposal states, “must honor the architecture of the late 19th century in which it was built while developing a compelling, sustainable reuse for this currently vacant property.”

Developers can tour the site in late September. Proposals are due Oct. 30. The city says it will evaluate all proposals within 30 days.

Read the RFI online at bit.ly/1UHUV91.

While the city prefers that a developer buy the property, officials will consider a lease, or a lease-purchase agreement, according to the paperwork.

A city appraisal this year estimated the building's worth at $1.6 million. City leaders said they were willing to pay more to save a priceless piece of the city's history from an owner who wasn't maintaining it.

The five-story, 55,500-square-foot structure was designed by E.A. Hatherton of San Francisco in the style of Italian Renaissance town halls. It has fine brickwork and terra-cotta ornamentation, tall windows, high ceilings, sweeping archways and exposed brick interiors. The brick walls at the base of the structure are eight feet thick.

Hugh C. Wallace, U.S. ambassador to France from 1919-1921, donated the clock and chimes in 1905 in memory of his daughter.

The building is part of the Old City Hall Historic District, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The city will pay for immediate, safety-related repairs, said Elly Walkowiak, the city's business development manager. Such repairs include shoring up seven masonry arches, fixing a leak in the northwest corner of the building and stabilizing metal cornices. The city does not yet know how much those repairs will cost.

The document soliciting developers lists a number of nearby amenities, including parking garages and the proposed Link light rail extension. If constructed as officials plan, the light rail line will have a stop at Old City Hall.

A 45-room McMenamins hotel and brewery is slated to open in the nearby Elks Lodge in 2017.

Developers must submit a letter that includes detailed plans for Old City Hall, a schedule of key milestones and a plan for financing the renovation.

Walkowiak said she expects interest from developers with experience in renovating historic buildings for new uses.

“They are the most knowledgeable about old buildings, their old bones and what's possible. That's a wide category of developers,” Walkowiak said.

The DJC contributed material to this article.