Tacoma’s Winthrop hotel building has a new owner
Downtown Tacoma’s Winthrop hotel building is officially in the hands of its new owners, who already have permits to begin the historic building’s most extensive renovation in four decades.
The sale closed Tuesday, making California-based Redwood Housing Partners the latest owner of the historic 1925 property that now holds 194 low-income apartments.
Redwood plans to maintain the Winthrop as an affordable-housing apartment complex. The company received a lot of its funding for the building’s purchase and repair from the state’s affordable housing commission. The work planned for the Winthrop is as much for deferred maintenance issues as it is for upgrades, since the building suffered from neglect by its previous owners.
Redwood bought the Winthrop for $8.5 million from the trustee overseeing the bankruptcies of the previous owners, Tom Price and Hyun Um of Prium Cos. Redwood plans extensive construction. The two permits secured from the city so far estimate work valued at $6.8 million, and a third is being processed.
“I’m very happy the building is getting some investment,” said city historic preservation officer Reuben McKnight.
The sale has been in the works for almost a year, and Redwood founder Ryan Fuson has said he wouldn’t comment on his company’s plans for the building until the sale closed. On Monday, he said he likely wouldn’t comment even then.
One of the brokers on the sale said the city should celebrate the influx of millions to restore one of Tacoma’s most historic buildings.
“This is a big day for Tacoma,” said Jim Jensen, a senior vice president at Berkadia who helped broker the sale.
This spring, Redwood received approval from the Tacoma Landmarks Preservation Commission for its plans. According to the approved work plan, Redwood plans to:
the last working elevator stopped running and forced some residents to temporarily move out
replacing just the residential windows
This story was originally published May 6, 2015 at 11:55 AM with the headline "Tacoma’s Winthrop hotel building has a new owner."