The $40-million property is a development of German billionaire Erivan Haub. The building's design was created by Thomas Cook Reid Reinvald Architects of Tacoma. The general contractor was Sellen Construction Co. of Seattle. Approximately 40,000 sf of office and retail space are reported to be available in the building, located at 1301 "A": St. Rates were not immediately available.

Since the latter end of the 1990's, Tacoma has seen record construction. Just last year, the city issued nearly $275 million worth of new permits, generated in good part by developers seeking to build more affordable Northwest office properties than are available in the high-rent districts of the greater Seattle area.

Rather than new office buildings, the projects have been renovations of older buildings. "People are looking at a lot of our downtown buildings that have been sitting fallow. They're moving in and filling them up," says Gary Pedersen, the city's manager of building and land use services." Altogether, about $650 million is sitting in new developments underway in both the private and public sectors.

A new convention center pegged at $61 million is on schedule for opening in early 2003. The 75,000 sf facility will have a 50,000-sf exhibition hall, 13,000 sf of meeting rooms and 12,000 sf for its ballroom and pre-function spaces. The facility will occupy several Downtown blocks, bordered by Pacific Ave., South Broadway, and South 15th and 17th Streets.

Another project on the books here is the Oxbow Financial & Technology Center (Pacific Steps) by Opus Northwest LLC, a member of the Minneapolis-based Opus Group. The community has been waiting for Opus to consummate its $1.9 million purchase of a downtown block from the city, where it plans to build a 10-story office tower. Last year's projections set lease rates for the building at $20 per sf to 24 per sf net.

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Columbia Bank Center Legitimizing South Sound Renaissance

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