$24 million building to be added this summer to UWT

The University of Washington Tacoma will start construction this summer on a $24 million building that expands the library and provides more classrooms.

The new building will be four stories and a basement. It will snuggle up to the historic Tioga building, on Jefferson Avenue across from The Swiss pub, and will connect to the university’s existing library by a skywalk.

UWT spokesman Mike Wark said Friday that the school will begin work in August by demolishing the one-story building next to the Tioga. The new building also will take a bite out of the large parking lot that fills the rest of the block.

Construction will last 16 to 18 months, Wark said. The school plans to open the new building for the 2012 summer term.

“It’s going to affect us,” The Swiss co-owner Jack McQuade said. “But that’s part of the ongoing expansion of the campus. Hopefully the construction workers will make up for lost customers.”

The structure is the last piece of the most recent campus construction phase that included the renovation of the Joy Building on Pacific Avenue, infrastructure improvements on Market Street and the renovation of science labs.

The construction phase began in 2008, and its cost was estimated to be about $54 million. As the years have passed and the economy worsened, the Legislature has approved fewer dollars each year.

The UWT asked the Legislature this spring for permission to issue its own bonds to help fund construction of the Jefferson Avenue building. State lawmakers agreed, so the UWT will use student building fees to back $7.4 million in bonds. The rest will come from university system reserves and state money.

And the new building won’t be completely finished on the inside. Wark said the school probably will leave “a floor or two as empty shell space” until it finds more money to finish it.

The University of Washington Board of Regents gave the final go-ahead Thursday.

“These kinds of funds are directed for capital construction only,” Wark said. “They can’t be used for teachers. We’re not taking money away from students to build buildings.”

Construction “also puts people to work, which is one of the reasons the Legislature funds projects during a recession,” he said.

Owners of businesses near the construction site said Friday that the university has been open about its plans. Crystal Davis works at Betta Mansions at 1903 Jefferson Ave. She spoke Friday on behalf of the owner.

Davis said in the three years the owner has leased from the university, it has used one-year leases. She said the university is a good landlord.

“The university took a big risk on us,” she said, because Betta Mansions was a relatively new business with little financial information. She hopes it continues to lease from the UWT.

School officials seemed to have learned communication lessons from the renovation of the Joy Building on Pacific Avenue. When work began there in the fall of 2009, adjacent business owners said the school did a poor job of telling them about construction plans.

After a rough start, the school now holds monthly meetings with its retail tenants. Representatives of the construction crews attend.

Greg Klein, who owns South Sound Running at 1736 Pacific Ave., said university officials realized the problem and responded well. As for construction frustration, he tries to take the long view.

“It’ll be great when it’s finished,” Klein said. “There’s a certain ‘bite the bullet’ to this.”

The Swiss’ McQuade says a “best-case scenario” is that the new plans include a Jefferson Avenue driveway to the parking lot across from his business, like the one that is there now.

Wark said the designers are working on it.

“We haven’t given up on car access on Jefferson,” Wark said, “but it’s not likely during construction.”

Kathleen Cooper: 253-597-8546 kathleen.cooper@thenewstribune.com