Pacific Plaza gains medical clinic

A medical clinic will occupy the last ground-floor space in downtown Tacoma’s Pacific Plaza, the home of downtown’s newest grocer.

The City Council voted 5-2 to allow Pacific Plaza’s ownership group to lease 2,700 square feet to DaVita for an employee clinic that will be open to the public. The clinic will fill the last space in Pacific Plaza. Councilmen Ryan Mello and Jake Fey were absent.

“This was not a hard decision for me,” Mayor Marilyn Strickland said before the vote Tuesday. “This is health care, which is a growing business, and it supports an existing business that wants to do something innovative.”

The decision aligned two major interests in downtown, in the developers of a high-profile office building and a large employer.

During public remarks Tuesday, DaVita vice president Jim Hilger invoked the company’s decision to keep its business headquarters in Tacoma just before Russell Investments decided to leave. He said the decision was right for their business and also said DaVita had hired more employees.

“We have done what we said we would do. We have almost a thousand teammates, up from 800 (that we had) when we decided to stay,” he said. “This clinic is key for our ongoing commitment to downtown Tacoma.”

According to an August letter from one of Pacific Plaza’s owners to Strickland, the clinic would provide treatment rooms, X-rays and physical therapy.

It would employ as many as 11 full-time workers and serve up to 35 patients daily.

Employees of kidney dialysis company DaVita would be the primary clients, as well as employees’ family members, but clinic memberships would be “offered to other downtown employers and their employees,” the letter states.

DaVita’s chief marketing officer Rebecca Steinfort said Tuesday that the Pacific Plaza space filled the company’s three criteria for its clinic: proximity to DaVita’s main offices across the street; high-quality space and environmentally friendly space. Pacific Plaza has a national environmental certification.

“We don’t see anything else in downtown that meets these criteria,” she said.

Pacific Plaza’s owners were required to seek the city’s permission to make the lease because it partnered with the city on the building’s redevelopment. The city helped to secure some $19 million for the renovation of a rundown city parking garage, and the ownership group of 11 families put in about $25 million of their own to create a LEED-certified office-parking-retail complex.

The original development agreement stated that the building’s ground floor “shall be used for commercial retail activity.”

In late 2009, the council agreed to modify that agreement so the Washington Attorney General’s Office could put offices into Pacific Plaza – a move that drew opposition from many downtown business interests.

In exchange, the development’s owners agreed to share some rent and parking revenues with the city. It also reaffirmed a commitment to lease the rest of the building’s ground floor to retailers.

The latest proposal came before the council two weeks ago. It required amendments to both the restated development agreement and the lease agreement, allowing for the clinic. The council asked city staff to negotiate “consideration” for the change.

Unlike the attorney general’s office, money is not part of the consideration for the clinic. Pacific Plaza agreed to make improvements to the public space around the South 12th Street hill-climb by adding tables, chairs and planters. They also agreed to cooperate with the local arts community on making sure the space is active.

Those agreements satisfied Councilman David Boe, who supported the clinic lease while sympathizing with downtown merchants who wanted traditional retail. Councilman Joe Lonergan said the clinic could be a lure for a pharmacy downtown.

Councilmembers Marty Campbell and Lauren Walker voted against allowing the clinic.

Campbell, along with every other speaker and council member, praised Pacific Plaza’s owners for bringing a grocer to the downtown core. Campbell said the grocer is why he wants that last retail space to hang on for a traditional retailer.

“That grocery is part of the momentum that we’re seeing,” he said. “Two weeks ago, the (Downtown Merchants Group chairwoman) said we’ve opened up 50 businesses in downtown. They’re not all ground-floor retail, but we have a whole lot of momentum.”

One longtime downtown business owner spoke against the change, reminding the council of the effects of making decisions about retail during a recession.

Steph Farber, a co-owner of LeRoy Jewelers on Broadway, said a well-meaning council allowed a developer during a recession to turn the old Woolworth’s building on the corner of his block into a phone switching station with an art component.

“That killed that block. Because of that, the Rhodes Center (across the street) can’t lease its spots, which means its neighbors can’t lease its spots, which means there’s less reasons for people to be on the street,” Farber said. The decision to allow a non-retail use “has made a lasting negative impact on the rest of us trying to build retail in this area.”

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