And officials around here say they'll keep working

For months, keeping Russell Investments’ headquarters in Tacoma was Job One for downtown decision-makers. After the announcement Wednesday that Russell would move to Seattle, the game of hard-to-get got a lot less interesting.

“Ultimately, the world doesn’t revolve around Russell. They’re just a tenant,” said Mike Hickey of the Neil Walter Co., who represented German billionaire Erivan Haub’s interest in building Russell a new tower.

But the deep feelings were hard to disguise.

“Everybody recognized that this was not just a real estate transaction, this was a community endeavor,” Hickey said Wednesday. “People put their heart and soul into it. Everybody knew this was an important decision for our community.

“I don’t know how I feel,” he said. “I’m not surprised, but we just have to move on. We’ve got a lot of great things to offer.”

The level of cooperation on this development was different than on other projects, Hickey said, and that bodes well for the future.

Bruce Kendall, president and CEO of the Economic Development Board for Tacoma-Pierce County, agreed.

“We’ll continue with the strategy that we had,” he said. “It’s always been about more than Russell. The investments in downtown have been calculated and concentrated to make the downtown core as attractive a place as possible.”

Kendall said the board has about 20 companies in its recruitment pipeline, though he declined to provide details.

Ryan Petty, the city’s economic development director, said three companies looking for 20,000-25,000 square feet of class A office space in Tacoma were out of luck in the past 18 months. Two were professional services firms, and one was an engineering firm.

With Russell’s departure, the tight office space market will open up to businesses like those. “We’re looking forward to working with companies like them,” Petty said.

Tacoma Mayor Bill Baarsma said he has believed for weeks that Russell would move.

“I got a call several weeks ago from (Seattle City Councilman) Tim Burgess, and Tim’s comments were if they move, if they move, if they move, we hope this won’t irreparably damage the relationship (between the cities),” Baarsma said. “There was a lot of if if if if, but I was beginning to think it’s a lot of when when when when.”

A week after that, Baarsma said, he started to tell his colleagues on the Tacoma City Council to prepare themselves for bad news.

“Ultimately, it wasn’t so much about Tacoma vs. Seattle,” said Tacoma City Councilman Mike Lonergan. “It was about that there was the very unique opportunity of the WaMu (Center) being available. … I really don’t feel it was about Tacoma measuring up … If that was purely the question, ‘Which (incentive) deal is better,’ I think Tacoma does win.”

U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Belfair, said he was proud of the bid Tacoma had put together to keep Russell in downtown.

“We should be proud of our effort,” he said. “We did the best we could.”

When it comes to the future of downtown, Dicks said he had no magic answer. Dicks, who represents downtown Tacoma as part of the 6th Congressional District, has been instrumental in securing federal support for downtown projects.

“We’ve come so far, we will have to continue to work on redevelopment,” he said. “We will do it. We need to move on and start bringing new companies downtown.”

The biggest losers in Russell’s decision may be its employees, who will either have to buy into the high-priced Seattle housing market or face long commutes, Dicks said.

“I feel sorry for workers who face dramatic change,” he said.

Staff writer Lewis Kamb contributed to this report.

Kathleen Cooper: 253-597-8546

kathleen.cooper@thenewstribune.com