Foss Waterway tram plan seems aimed a bit high
DAN VOELPEL; THE NEWS TRIBUNE
More than 1 million people – me included – have ridden Portland’s aerial tram in the less than 11 months since it started running between the South Waterfront and the hilltop Oregon Health & Science University 3,300 feet away.
Don’t expect anywhere near that many riders on Tacoma’s gondola.
Yes, you read that right.
The Foss Waterway Development Authority has released a new sketch of how its governing board envisions an aerial connection between Tacoma’s waterfront and downtown.
Now, the high-wire act would start between the Dock Building and the Working Waterfront Maritime Museum – where a parking lot sits today – rise over the Burlington Northern railroad yard, Schuster Parkway and Stadium Way and land next to the old Elks Lodge between Broadway and Commerce Street.
That, explained development authority Executive Director Don Meyer, would land people a block from the end of Tacoma’s light-rail line and better weave the gondola into downtown’s transportation network.
Surprised? So is Homer Williams.
Williams’ company, Williams & Dame Development of Portland, formed an investment group and bought the Elks building and adjacent vacant lot last year.
“No, huh-unh,” Williams said, when I called him this week and asked if he’d heard of the Tacoma plans.
Williams knows trams, however.
Williams & Dame is the prime mover and shaker in Portland’s South Waterfront office, hospital, retail and residential development – a 10-year project estimated to invest $2.5 billion. And it includes the $57 million aerial tram.
“It’s pretty … cool,” Williams said.
But he can’t envision something as iconic, dramatic or expensive in Tacoma.
“Could there be something (in Tacoma) that would be on a different scale? I’m sure there probably could,” Williams said.
In Portland, the tram isn’t primarily a tourist toy, although I rode it as one Saturday.
The short history goes like this: In the early 1900s, building a hospital and, later, a university research center on donated land atop a hill overlooking Portland sounded like a good idea. But by the 1990s, “Pill Hill” had no more room. So OHSU built office and research towers on the South Waterfront and connected the two districts with the tram.
A three-minute ride, 550-foot elevation gain, $4 roundtrip for tourists, free for Pill Hill employees and visitors, 78 people to a tram, 3,700 passenger round trips a day.
“It’s an iconic thing for the city, but it’s a workhorse,” Williams said. “And it’s all about business. … There are other ways to move people that are similar but much less expensive.”
In Tacoma, in its latest concept, a similar aerial connection wouldn’t have anywhere near as much business benefit. (An earlier concept suggested some kind of funicular cable cars on a track connecting Fireman’s Park nearer the heart of downtown with a spot nearer the middle of the Foss waterfront.)
Tacoma wouldn’t need a pure business benefit to erect something more modestly priced than Portland’s tram. Spokane, for example, had a skyride over its downtown river falls built for the 1974 World’s Fair. In 2005, a $2.5 million replacement skyride opened with 15 gondolas that take tourists on a slow 15-minute, 2,500-foot-long loop.
Meyer rode it this summer.
“I thought we can have functionality (in Tacoma) as well as a unique experience” like Spokane’s, Meyer said.
Besides, Meyer said, “we felt Homer would understand the idea and that it would work.”
When can we ride it? Not anytime soon. The development authority predicts some kind of public-private venture built into whatever Williams & Dame decides to do with its Elks project, Meyer said.
And Williams doesn’t know yet what his company will do with the site or when. The original plan for a condominium tower next to a refurbished Elks temple doesn’t look as profitable in the Northwest’s current housing downturn, Williams said.
“It’s a work in progress. We would like to be in there starting something next year,” Williams said. “But this market right now is very tough. … It’s going to take awhile for this market to sort itself out. If anybody can tell me when it’s going to start making the turn, please have them call me.”
Don’t forget to mention the gondola.
Dan Voelpel: 253-597-8785
dan.voelpel@thenewstribune.com
