Matt Driscoll: Historic Valhalla Hall could be important part of Hilltop’s future

Change is in the air on Hilltop.

Last month, I wrote about the prospective mixed-use development at South 11th Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Way, which — assuming the project happens — will feature about 250 market-rate residential units above approximately 15,000 square feet of commercial space.

Currently, the location is an empty grass field, lifeless since the Martin Luther King Housing Development Association’s dreams of a multistory, mixed-use development of its own went spectacularly sideways. The potential new building — and the new life it will breathe into Hilltop — have a lot of people optimistic about the future.

But it’s far from the only reason for renewed Hilltop enthusiasm.

Just down Martin Luther King Jr Way, between Earnest S Brazill Street and South 13th Street, and the big new Community Health building and the little post office, the city of Tacoma’s redevelopment arm is preparing for another project that stands to alter Hilltop as we know it.

And while a renovated three-story residential building, and its 26 units, might not seem like much, there’s history at this spot — and, in the eyes of city officials, a lot of potential.

Constructed at the turn of the 20th century, Valhalla Hall, as Tacoma historian Michael Sullivan tells it, filled an important niche during its heyday — specifically for the city’s Swedish American community.

One of the “men’s clubs” of the time, Sullivan says Valhalla Hall was known for cigar-smoke-filled political gatherings, as opposed to the more family-oriented lutefisk feeds that were common at places like the Sons of Norway hall on South 15th Street. One Valhalla regular was Ole Larson, the Scandinavian American Bank president who ended up in federal prison for illegally using depositors’ funds to help finance construction of what is now the Washington Building in downtown Tacoma.

The Valhalla building at 1216-1218 Martin Luther King Jr. Way has been empty since 2009. These days, its windows are boarded up and weeds are growing out front. But if the city’s Community and Economic Development Department has its way, that won’t be the case for much longer.

In 2014, the city’s Hilltop Subarea Plan identified vacant Valhalla Hall as a project that could spur development in the neighborhood. In January of that year, the Tacoma Community Redevelopment Authority purchased the building out of foreclosure. Now — after mulling possibilities ranging from a performing arts theater to a computer lab for Hilltop residents — the city, says Tacoma’s Housing Division Manager Carey Jenkins, is inching ever closer to seeing its vision for the property materialize.

“We’re really excited about it,” Jenkins tells me.

Jenkins describes a plan for Valhalla Hall that’s the very definition of adaptive reuse, or as he describes it, “Taking the old, something that’s a project or property that’s functionally obsolete, and turning it into a use that is needed in the marketplace.”

For Valhalla Hall, that means a plan that calls for nine of its envisioned 26 rental units made available to households earning 50 percent or below of the area median income — which, for Hilltop, is extremely important. It fits with the Hilltop Subarea Plan, which calls for 25 percent of all new housing in Hilltop to be affordable.

It also means two “work-live” units on the ground, retail floor, designated as “commercial” — where tenants can reside and do business. Jenkins cites examples such as writers or photographers that might potentially benefit from such a creative, albeit old-school, arrangement.

Jenkins says the project — which is estimated to cost between $6 and $6.5 million — will likely break ground in June, with an estimated construction time of up to 11 months. The TCRA — which will maintain ownership of the building and collect rent to help fund similar endeavors in the future — will negotiate a locked-in guaranteed maximum price prior to the start of construction.

Overall, Jenkins says, the work at Valhalla Hall fits several of the city’s overall policy goals, including building more mixed-income housing, leveraging the potential of the Link light rail (which is expected to reach Hilltop by 2021), and bringing housing to Hilltop for people working downtown. He also hopes it will serve as a “demonstration project” for potential private investors.

“I’d like to think this is one of the first big moves along MLK Way … one of those catalytic projects that will serve several policy goals,” Jenkins says. “Twenty-six units is not a significantly large project, but it’s important … because it creates an example of what we can do along the corridor.”

Valhalla Hall played an important role in Tacoma’s past. If we’re lucky, and Jenkins is right, the building will play an important role in the future of Hilltop.

This story was originally published March 7, 2016 at 1:14 AM with the headline "Matt Driscoll: Historic Valhalla Hall could be important part of Hilltop’s future."