Coworking takes off in Tacoma as Old City Hall work continues
As Eli Moreno works to turn Old City Hall into one of Tacoma’s most iconic coworking spaces with retail, dining and apartments, the coworking trend keeps gaining new space in the city.
The Pioneer Collective, run by Chris and Audrey Hoyt and with coworking operations in Seattle’s Pioneer Square, launched this summer in Tacoma with a 12,000-square-foot coworking and meeting space at Court House Square building, 1102 A St., in downtown Tacoma.
Coworking spaces are places where people gather to do work, usually for different companies.
The goal of both Moreno, who operates Surge coworking spaces, and the Hoyts is to bring more jobs to Tacoma.
“Surge aims to innovate by creating a marketplace in retail and a technology center for companies that ultimately brings in higher paying jobs to the community,” Moreno wrote on the OCH blog in July.
Old City Hall
Old City Hall, much like McMenamins did during the Elks Temple renovation, is offering Tacoma a view of its comeback via its Facebook page and blog.
Guion Rosenzweig, Moreno’s project manager for Old City Hall, told The News Tribune via email, “Rough schematics are now in place, planning is daily and we are still planning on ‘breaking ground’ so to speak in August of next year.”
In August 2019, Moreno wrote on the blog: “To date, our team of engineers and architects have removed over 200 bricks, individually, across 80 walls on 6 floors. This determines the cohesive strength of the mortar and the porosity of the aged bricks. Keep in mind these bricks are more than 125 years old!”
He added, “Furthermore, we are embarking on soil boring which determines the strength of the foundation. The stones in many parts of the wall’s foundation are 8 feet across, which is significantly more than other similar buildings.
“The foundation stones are composed of granite while the overlying limestones were carved from a quarry in San Francisco. This quarry remains operational today and we are returning to the site to purchase more stones as replacements for several areas that need reinforcement.”
As for the project’s “clock challenge,” which was announced earlier this year, Moreno told The News Tribune this week: “The Clock Challenge has expanded from the restoration of the clock to include a design challenge. The design challenge is intended to celebrate the almost 130 years that Old City Hall has witnessed Tacoma’s growth into the future.
“We have delayed the launch of the Clock Challenge to finalize the schematics of each floor with the City’s building department. The logistics of each floor will impact where the area that the design challenge will encompass.”
The original idea was to award $5,000 to the student team that came up with the most creative and effective plan to keep time on all four clock faces, with the clock faces illuminated and the bells chiming during business hours.
The contest was to be open to collegiate architectural and engineering students.
Moreno’s other coworking spaces already in operation include Surge Union Club, 539 Broadway, Surge Tacoma, 2367 Tacoma Ave. S., and Surge South Tacoma, 5401 South Tacoma Way.
TPC TACOMA
Surge has new competition in the Hoyts’ The Pioneer Collective, which uses its website to promote its spaces and clients.
Chris Hoyt told The News Tribune in November that recruiting firms Adecco and Ajilon have set up remote offices at TPC Tacoma. Additionally, KNKX and the Tacoma Art Museum also have used the facilities, according to Hoyt.
Other clients include tech startups such as GiveInKind (who just announced a $1.5 million seed round to fuel growth of its social support platform) and Bunker Labs, a nonprofit that helps veterans and military spouses become entrepreneurs.
“With regard to the tech whales, they tend to be a bit more secretive, as often the teams they place in remote offices are working on ‘stealth’ projects,” he said.
“I can say our customer list from our flagship location (in Seattle) includes Facebook, Amazon, Tableau, BlueNile, Microsoft, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Google, Bose, Qualtrics and Avalara and we’re working to help a number of those companies to establish a presence in Tacoma.”
This story was originally published November 29, 2019 at 6:00 AM.
