Elks OK development deal

The sale of the Tacoma Elks’ 17-acre property on South 23rd and Union streets has moved forward.

Preliminary plans include medical office buildings, retail space and restaurants.

Lodge members on Wednesday night approved a contract with Opus, a Minneapolis-based real estate developer who in 2008 finished Federal Way Crossings, a 21-acre retail development on South 348th Street.

Gary Giambrone, the Elks’ special representative who is in charge of the lodge, said Thursday that the contract comprises two phases of development, and that the Elks’ Grand Lodge trustees still must approve both phases.

Opus has a four-month contingency on both phases, Giambrone said, which gives the developer and the Elks the flexibility to assess the market before breaking ground. Officials from Opus could not be reached for comment Thursday.

The contingency clock for Phase Two doesn’t start ticking until Phase One is complete.

Last month, the Elks rejected an offer from Wal-Mart because the contingency period was too long.

Here’s how Giambrone described the plan:

Phase 1 involves the property behind the Elks Lodge, on Cedar Street, where Opus plans to build two medical office buildings. One is 60,000 square feet. The other is 40,000 square feet. Tenants for those buildings were unclear Thursday.

Phase 2 involves the rest of the land, where the current lodge sits.

“That’s a whole new ball game,” Giambrone said. “We can’t start our new building until we get commitment on Phase 2.”

The Elks plan to build a new, smaller lodge for their 3,000 members at the Allenmore Golf Course.

“We’re going to be improving the golf course, paving all the new cart paths,” Giambrone said. Selling the current property “is allowing us to do all the improvements to make (the new one) a first-class facility.”

Since 1965, when the Elks moved to their Union Avenue lodge from its old quarters in downtown Tacoma across from the old City Hall, the fraternal group has sold off parts of the original lodge site. That property once stretched from South 19th Street to the State Route 16 freeway.

The lodge was once the nation’s largest, with 10,000 members. But as membership declined, the Elks have been looking for ways first to enhance revenue, and now to downsize.

The two-phase contract allows the Elks to stay in their current lodge until development of the land under it is a certainty.

Giambrone plans to present the contract to the Grand Lodge Trustees this weekend, and he hopes they’ll look it over and make a decision next week. “It’s not a sure thing, but it’s a 90 percent thing,” he said. “I cannot sign a contract until they approve.”

Kathleen Cooper: 253-597-8546

kathleen.cooper@thenewstribune.com