Here’s why Heritage Bank bought a vacant medical building in Tacoma

The vacant three-story medical building on Pacific Avenue in Tacoma once billed as a “hospital hotel” eventually will come back to life, filled with workers for an area bank.

Olympia-based Heritage Bank will take occupancy next year of the property at 3615 Pacific Ave. that once was the home of Northwest Kinetics. The medical operation worked with pharmaceuticals in clinical medical trials at the site.

Northwest Kinetics signed a purchase and sale agreement for the 3.2-acre lot in late 2004 to build its “hospital hotel” for its clinical research. The site was developed in 2005 by Rush Commercial Construction, which then leased the space back to Northwest Kinetics, which later became Charles River Clinical Services Northwest.

Charles River “divested the Northwest Phase I clinic in March 2011 because of the economic downturn,” a representative told The News Tribune. The operation then became a subsidiary of Comprehensive Clinical Development, according to a Bloomberg company overview.

The building fell vacant in recent times before Heritage Bank bought the building and nearby parcels in June for $11.625 million.

The plan is to consolidate Heritage’s Tacoma “back office” operations into one location at the site.

Heritage plans to move into the building next summer, Jeff Deuel, who was named the bank’s CEO this month, told The News Tribune via email.

“We have plans,” he said, “to renovate the building to accommodate our Tacoma-based back office operations” as well as other team members working in Pierce County area branches “and certain members of the leadership team who already have offices in Tacoma.”

The renovation generally will involve keeping the existing offices and replacing the medical portions of the interior with meeting rooms and training space.

Deuel succeeded Brian Vance as CEO of Heritage Bank.

Deuel, who’s held the titles of president and COO of Heritage Bank since 2012, also assumed the role of president of parent company Heritage Financial. Vance will remain CEO of Heritage Financial until July 2019, “at which time he will be become executive chair of the company’s board of directors,” according to a statement from Heritage Financial earlier this month.

Will any new jobs come out of the plans for the new Tacoma space?

“We always have a certain amount of open positions at any point in time due to attrition and growth,” Deuel said. “As we hire to fill open positions, and it makes sense for those people to be in the new building, we will hire in Tacoma.

“In certain cases, we have already hired new people to the team, knowing they will eventually (have an) office in the new building. In most cases, they are working in our existing locations in the area.”

The bank has grown to 65 branch offices in Washington and Oregon. Earlier this month, Heritage Financial completed its acquisition of Oregon-based Premier Commercial Bancorp. Earlier this year, it acquired Bellevue-based Puget Sound Bancorp.

This story was originally published July 24, 2018 at 2:10 PM.