Two developers are crafting an ambitious plan that could accomplish three goals high on downtown Tacoma’s wish list in a single swoop: restoring the historic but crumbling Elks Temple building, attracting a McMenamins brew pub-hotel and opening a new specialty grocery store in the central city.

Tacoma developer Grace Pleasants and development partner Rick Moses of Southern California on Tuesday unveiled plans to buy the 93-year-old former Elks Temple at 565 Broadway and a large tract of undeveloped land north of the temple from Portland developer Williams and Dame.

The two would immediately resell the white-stucco, five-story temple to Portland’s McMenamins for restoration and conversion into a combination hotel, brew-pub, spa and entertainment venue. On the lot to the north, under the developers’ plans, the City of Tacoma would build a five-story, 300-stall garage that would serve as a base for a six-story structure that includes a 22,500-square-foot grocery store on the Broadway level topped by five stories of apartments.

The developers are relying on federal grants and loans to accomplish this project.

Pleasants and Moses say the project has the potential to jump-start further redevelopment in the north end of downtown Tacoma.

“The Elks is a fabulous old building, a great piece of Tacoma history,” Moses said.

Pleasants, who redeveloped the Albers Mill building on the Thea Foss Waterway downtown and redeveloped several historic structures into offices in Alaska, said she believes the timing is right.

“We see this project coming on the market at the right time with the McMenamins’ reputation attracting customers not only from Tacoma but from around the Northwest,” she said.

Tacoma Mayor Bill Baarsma said he too is excited about the prospect that the Elks Temple, for decades a crumbling eyesore attacked by vandals and unkind elements, could finally find an attractive re-use.

“This is the most ambitious and coherent program we’ve seen,” he said about Pleasants’ and Moses’ plan. “It has more specificity and focus.”

Prior plans for the Elks building have raised and then dashed hopes a handful of times in recent years. A California man held onto the structure for decades without moving forward to restore or even secure it from vandals. His family sold it after his death. Experienced Portland developer Williams and Dame then bought the building with plans to erect a 25-story condo tower in the north lot and make the Elks building a grand entrance to the condo structure. But when the condo market collapsed, Williams and Dame put the building back on the market.

Since then the building has been proposed to be converted to a bus terminal and senior housing but both those plans didn’t happen.

Pleasants and Moses say their deal is already past some of its biggest hurdles.

 • Williams and Dame has accepted their offer to buy the building and the adjacent property. The prices was not disclosed.

 • McMenamins has agreed to buy the Elks Temple and convert it into one of their signature hotel and entertainment venues.

 • City officials have reacted favorably to the developers’ proposal for the city to construct a garage to the north of the temple to serve the hotel, the grocery store, the apartments and the public.

 • A study the two commissioned showed a strong market for a new grocery in downtown with the potential for winning more than 40 percent of the business in the trade area and more if the market was a specialty retailer such as Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s. Pleasants and Moses said grocers they’ve met with so far have shown strong interest in the site. The market would be about 22,500 square feet, a bit smaller than Metropolitan Market’s Proctor district store.

For McMenamins, the acquisition of the Elks Temple would be the fulfillment of a long-held desire.

“The Elks Temple is a great location for us to combine the rich history of the building with music, art, food and beverage, a meeting space for weddings/wake and everything in between and to provide a special place for the community to gather,” wrote McMenamins founding brothers Mike and Brian McMenamin to Pleasants and Moses. Neither was available for comment Tuesday.

The McMenamin brothers told Pleasants that they had repeatedly tried to buy the Elks but were rebuffed. They made an offer to the former California owner, but he rejected it. And they tried to work a deal with Williams and Dame, but the McMenamins wanted the whole building, not just part of the building that the Portland developer was willing to lease them.

Under the preliminary plan, McMenamins would restore the pool on the Commerce Street level and create a spa and exercise area there. On the level above in one of the Elks’ former ballrooms, the brothers would build a performing arts venue. Above that, they would create a floor level with a pub and bars.

In the two-story space where the lodge had its main assembly room, the hoteliers would create 50 hotel rooms.

“The McMenamins have told us they expect to attract 600 to 800 people a night when they have performances there,” Pleasants said.

In addition to the adjacent city parking garage, entertainment customers would have a privately owned lot adjacent to the Spanish Steps as a parking place. The Spanish Steps abuts the temple’s south side.

Tacoma’s Link light rail system, which connects parking near the Tacoma Dome and other parking facilities, has its northern terminus half a block from the temple.

The Tacoma Spur, Interstate 705, would feed freeway traffic directly to the new garage entrance on Commerce Street.

Moses and Pleasants say they plan to leverage historic tax credits and government loans and grants to help finance the building.

Because the new building would have apartments, Pleasants said banks have been far more receptive to their proposals than had they opted for condos.

“Say the ‘C-word,’ and bankers stop the conversation right there,” she said.

Bob Levin, City of Tacoma economic development division manager, said the city is working to develop a plan that could help make the new deal a reality.

“We’re doing our due diligence now,” he said.

Pleasants and Moses said they hope to have the city’s commitment in hand to build the garage in time for a closing on the building in late September or October.

Baarsma said he supports the city’s participation in the project. The City of Tacoma has helped pay for parking garages in other projects including the Museum of Glass and the Court 17 apartment building.

If planning and permitting move ahead as planned, construction should begin in the fall of 2010 with a simultaneous opening of the McMenamins and the apartment building in early 2012. While they are hopeful that a grocery store client can be signed soon, the failure to secure a grocery would not be a deal breaker, Moses said.

John Gillie: 253-597-8663

john.gillie@thenewstribune.com