Tacoma City Council is scheduled to vote Tuesday on a resolution that would allow downtown’s largest employer, DaVita, a medical care provide which provides dialysis services to patients with chronic kidney failure and end stage renal disease, to open a clinic in the $35 million, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Platinum Pacific Plaza building located at 1250 Pacific Avenue.
If approved, the resolution would amend a development and lease agreement between Pacific Plaza Development LLC and the City of Tacoma and change the original use of the street-level space from commercial retail space to commercial office space. In a similar move in December 2009, City Council approved a resolution that freed up 14,000 square feet of street-level space along Pacific Avenue originally slated for retail to be used as commercial office space for the Washington State Attorney General’s Office. A new grocery store is slated to open this fall on the south end of the building.
The building is a joint partnership between the City of Tacoma, which owns the parking facilities in the building, and Pacific Plaza LLC (BLRB Architects, PCS Structural Solutions, and Absher Construction), which owns and operates retail and office space.
According to Thomas L. Absher, a member of the Pacific Plaza development team, DaVita would lease 2,719 square feet on the north side of the ground floor at Pacific Plaza. “We believe this will be a great addition to the downtown core and provides the following benefits: up to 11 high-wage full-time employees; up to 35 patient visits daily; primary care for all of DaVita’s Tacoma employees and their families which brings them to the downtown core; clinic memberships offered to other downtown employers and their employees; attraction of future businesses to the downtown core that can offer the convenience of primary care to their employees in adjacency to their workplace,” wrote Absher in a Aug. 12 letter to Tacoma Mayor Marilyn Strickland.
“It is Pacific Plaza and City staff’s opinions that the benefits to the City from this authorization would justify authorizing the sublease,” according to a request for the resolution prepared Aug. 25 by Public Works Director Richard E. McKinley.
Tacoma City Council is scheduled to vote on the resolution during its meeting on Tues., Aug. 30 at 5 p.m. in City Council Chambers, 747 Market Street, First Floor, in Tacoma. For a copy of the complete agenda and meeting materials, visit http://cms.cityoftacoma.org/cityclerk/Files/CityCouncil/Agendas/2011-FullAgendas/Full20110830.pdf .
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Downtown’s Pacific Plaza earns LEED Platinum certification (06/03/10) — http://www.tacomadailyindex.com/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=88&cat=23&id=1782381&more=0
PHOTOS / Pacific Plaza Tour (09/02/09) — http://i.feedtacoma.com/TDI-Reporters-Notebook/photos-pacific-plaza-tour-inside/
5. Inside Pacific Plaza: From blight to beauty, a $30 million downtown high-rise sets a new standard (09/02/09) — http://www.wahmee.com/tdi_inside_pac_plaza.pdf
6. Outside Pacific Plaza: A garden grows high above downtown Tacoma (09/03/09) — http://www.wahmee.com/tdi_outside_pac_plaza.pdf
