The Economic Development Board (EDB) for Tacoma-Pierce County has announced its annual list of Top 10 economic development projects and investments worked on or completed between January and December of 2013.
The list includes State Farm’s decision to lease 300,000 square feet of Class A office space in the former Russell Investments headquarters building in downtown Tacoma, bringing 1,100 new jobs to the area; BNY Mellon’s decision to renew its lease in a building on Broadway Plaza (where it has remained since 1999), keeping 170 jobs in downtown Tacoma; Niagara Bottling’s decision to invest $50 million in a 311,000 square foot building in Frederickson and creating 45 new jobs; Western Institutional Review Board’s decision to relocate 200 employees from Thurston County to Puyallup, leasing 45,000 square feet at the Benaroya Business & Technology Center; the Sumner Distribution Center development project creating six warehouses totaling approximately two-million square feet; the University Place Town Center public/private partnership creating mixed-use, retail, office, and residential space; TriWest Healthcare Alliance’s decision to open a customer support center at the South Hill Business and Technology Center in Puyallup, leasing 14,000 square feet and employing 100 people; the $150 million Point Ruston Copperline Condominiums project, which created 776 construction jobs in the area; the 4,200-acre, 5,900-home Tehaleh planned community in Bonney Lake; and the $18 million, 163-room Holiday Inn Express in downtown Tacoma’s Brewery District.
The list was announced on Fri., Feb. 28, during EDB’s annual meeting at the Greater Tacoma Convention and Trade Center in downtown Tacoma.
Similarly, Jeff Lyon — EDB board chair and CEO and chairman of commercial real estate firm Kidder Mathews — presented the 2014 Golden Shovel Award to State Farm. According to Lyon, State Farm’s decision to lease office space in downtown Tacoma had the largest economic impact on Pierce County over the past year and “injected new energy and economic activity into the area.”
More information is available online at edbtacomapierce.org.
