TACOMA, Wash. — A new location has opened up in downtown Tacoma to serve as housing: a 10-story building on Pacific Avenue that used to be the site of DaVita Inc.
The building has stood empty since last year, when DaVita Inc moved its staff of 500 people out to relocate to Federal Way.
According to Horizon Partners, who owns the building, the goal is to build 75 apartments, with 63 in the tower and 12 in the building's adjoining two-story annex.
Horizon Partners President Mike Bartlett, said once he saw Amazon stop its plans to build office space in Bellevue, he knew that there wasn’t much of a market for office space since the pandemic.
“Tacoma doesn’t have huge office spaces, so in some ways it’s good that way,” Bartlett said. “But the demand has not recovered at all.”
Meanwhile, the City of Tacoma said it welcomes the initiative.
Debbie Bingham from the city’s Community Economic Development Department said one of the benefits of these projects is that Tacoma doesn’t have to wait that long to see results.
“It’s a great use for the DaVita building on Pacific Avenue and we’ve had several other office buildings be converted to apartments,” Bingham said. “It’s an easy way to get apartments online quickly, so we’re all for it.”
Zoning laws in Tacoma already allow buildings that were originally built for work to be repurposed for housing. But Bingham highlights the city’s multi-family property tax exemption as the biggest draw for developers.
“They can use that even in the conversion of office to housing,” she said. “They’ll get a property tax exemption on the difference of the value currently as office, and then at the end as housing. They won’t pay property tax on the difference. So that’s a pretty darn big incentive for developers, either eight or twelve years, depending on if they choose to add affordability to it.”
Horizon Partners said the renovation work on the building is set to begin in December and is expected to be completed by next summer.