All Roads Lead to Rhodes ( 2. February 2007, 07:17 by Derek Young) ~ Do You Need Office Space?
The Rhodes Department Store building is in the news again. The building at 11th and Broadway just can’t find a happy owner. The retail store moved to the mall in 1974. It was nearly demolished in the 1976. Then it was saved. The UPS law school bought the building and moved in around 1980. In 1994 the law school was sold to Seattle University. I was a tour guide at UPS in 1994 when the University sold the law school. Anybody remember those TNT political cartoons? Yeah, that was a fun time to be a tour guide… Sorry, random aside. The school finally left Tacoma in 1999 and the building was picked up by the state.
Now, according to Peter Callaghan, the building is running a deficit of $8.4 million after a $23 million renovation and it has $21.7 million in deferred maintenance. To top it off, the market value is estimated at $21 million. So what’s the state to do? Cut and run!
It’s a little big for my needs. How about you?
Link to The News Tribune
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No thoughts about making it the Global Headquarters for Exit133? Sure it may be a bit big now, but a few years from now, this site will be the next Google.
1 | Posted by UPSPatrick | Feb 2, 08:31 AM
Well at least now there will be some office space on the market.
I’m having trouble deciding how needy this building really is. It may be a real money pit, but General Administration is not considered a marvel of efficiency and ingenuity in my circles, so the story may not be so bad. If the state jobs shift to somewhere else in town and some other enterprise occupies the Rhodes building, this could be a big plus.
Mind you I said could be a plus.
2 | Posted by Erik S | Feb 2, 08:33 AM
The building was a nice restoration and is pretty full.
It may be a real money pit, but General Administration is not considered a marvel of efficiency and ingenuity in my circles, so the story may not be so bad.
The local merchants in the area seem to believe that the state has dropped the ball at least a couple of times in attempting to rent out the prime corner retail space.
Unfortunately, 11th street has 3 corner spots vacant on Pacific, Broadway and Market here. And the corner of 11th and Commerce is a server farm.
hmm…
A 114,300sf building with an operating deficit of $8.4M. This means its running a deficit of just over $73/sf each year.
It sure sounds like that operating deficit includes some of the remodel/rehab work taking place. That’s just bad math. (or I just missed something)
4 | Posted by DavidS | Feb 2, 09:05 AM
Forgot to reference Volpel’s column noting the lack of office space available. Obviously, if there is no space, either rates need to rise or more needs to be built. I’d rather the second option, but it seems silly to lose money by failing to follow the first option.
5 | Posted by DavidS | Feb 2, 11:39 AM
GA can do silly, trust me. A couple of weeks back they had a guy pressure washing a single set of steps for about two hours. I had a headache before he was done.
6 | Posted by Erik S | Feb 2, 12:22 PM
How about a department store? We’ll call it Rhodes. Maybe a gay bar on the first floor?
7 | Posted by Phil | Feb 2, 12:39 PM
I’m not a finance or marketing major but couldn’t it just be refinanced? It seems that the market demand for CBD space (be it office or residential) isn’t that stagnant in the region.
8 | Posted by Broadweezy | Feb 2, 01:04 PM
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