What’s next for former Tacoma Discount World property in Lakewood? New details emerge
The long goodbye to the former Tacoma Discount World in Lakewood might soon be over as work to transform it into a new fulfillment center is back in the spotlight.
The News Tribune reported in January initial plans for the site, 11013 Pacific Highway SW. An official with the City of Lakewood told The News Tribune on Thursday that the property’s owners anticipate moving along in permitting soon.
“We’re expecting them to submit for permits any day now,” Becky Newton, Economic Development manager for the City of Lakewood, told The News Tribune in a brief phone interview.
Newton and Dave Bugher, assistant city manager and Community & Economic Development director for the City of Lakewood, also made the project part of a presentation to City Council on Sept. 11.
“The fulfillment center is going to be really interesting when people see what it’s going to look like, the landscaping, the design of the project and everything else. It’s a huge face lift for the Pac Highway area,” Bugher said at the meeting.
An LLC representing Sterling Consumer Logistics Properties, a real estate fund managed by the Sterling Organization, based in West Palm Beach, Florida, purchased the property May 2022 for $17.7 million. The seller was an LLC affiliated with members of the Seattle family behind the Diamond Parking company. Also at that time, representatives for the new owner filed an application for determination “concerning permissibility of neighborhood fulfillment center land use.”
Vendors with Tacoma Discount World were running closeout sales in January, with some telling customers they were leaving by the end of April.
By June, Grocery Outlet, next to the Discount World building, had closed. The Google business listing for Bigfoot Java on the property shows, “Permanently closed,” and the site is no longer on Bigfoot Java’s locations page on its website.
An O’Reilly Auto Parts store remains in a separate building, and is the lone tenant remaining on the owner’s property marketing material.
On Sept. 11, Newton and Bugher included details of the fulfillment center project as part of an economic development update at the Lakewood City Council’s study session.
Highlighting the project, Newton told council members, “We’ve actually received quite a bit of data from them on what that’s going to look like. We know that there’s going to be 330 direct jobs with an average annual wage of approximately $84,000 plus benefits.”
Newton told The News Tribune she had no information about a future tenant. Renderings show a generic “E Com” sign on the building.
Neither the site’s leasing associate nor property manager responded to The News Tribune’s requests for updates.
Documents submitted to the city offer many preliminary details.
Renderings, site analysis
Newton shared with The News Tribune preliminary renderings and site-plan analysis that were submitted to the city.
In November, a consulting group retained by the Sterling Organization said in an 18-page project analysis that Sterling “proposes the renovation of an existing outdated commercial building for adaptive reuse as a ‘neighborhood fulfillment center’ at 11013 Pacific Highway SW in Lakewood.”
The site “will facilitate the delivery and pickup of consumer and business-to-business goods. The renovation will include demolition of existing building space, Improvements to the parking lot and landscaping,” it stated.
It added that the “separate adjacent parcel that includes an auto parts store ... is not included in the proposed redevelopment at this time.”
The construction budget is estimated at $8.1 million, according to the report.
“Assuming that assessed value increases by about the cost of construction, taxable property value of the subject parcels would increase from about $10.7 million at present to approximately $18.8 million upon project completion.”
It compared new potential wages to prior employment at the site.
It added, “It is estimated that once fully operational, the neighborhood fulfillment center will generate annual sales of over $57 million and provide employment for approximately 330 workers on site, primarily as delivery drivers and warehouse workers. This level of direct business activity is estimated to support direct labor income would be just under $84,000 per job — compared to $34,138 under existing conditions.”
The report showed prior employment from the previous tenants — coffee vendor, grocer, Discount World and Grand Prix Raceway Go kart track — totaled 35 jobs.
The analysis estimated 49 direct construction jobs attached to the project.
A late January follow-up letter from a law firm representing Sterling offered further details, including the fate of particular buildings on the property.
The letter said that the project “contemplates” demolishing the existing Grocery Outlet building and Bigfoot Java kiosk, with the main Discount World structure remaining and renovated as the neighborhood fulfillment center.
The former grocery building would make way for a proposed staging/loading area, the site plan shows, and the coffee stand area would become parking spaces.
In July 2023, paperwork was filed with the city to initiate demolition of the Bigfoot Java property, which county records list as built in 2012. The application was returned, with the city requiring submission of further documents before moving forward, according to the status listed on file.
The January letter stated, “The contemplated use will have limited or no access to the public to purchase goods on-site. Instead, retail inventory will arrive at the facility to facilitate quick turnaround for ‘last-hour’ delivery to customers to fulfill online orders, either through a proprietary parcel delivery service or or more third-party parcel delivery services.”
“The delivery operations will likely utilize van and cars to execute the ‘last hour’ delivery routes in the area.” It listed examples of “likely end users,” including home goods distributor, electronics and appliance retailers, on-demand general merchandise and grocery fulfillment.
It listed the site at 100,178 square feet with 292 parking spaces, and a maximum of up to 170 employees on the site “at any one time.” with 24-hour, seven days a week operations.
“Delivery personnel arrive in segmented waves starting at 9 a.m.,” it added. It included a potential range of employees numbering 250-340, but also referred to the original 330-workers estimate.
While the details sound very much like an Amazon site, city officials say they have no information on the tenant’s identity.
Amazon, when asked about any potential plans by The News Tribune on Friday, did not respond.
Amazon already has a delivery station operation in the Lakewood Logistics Center II, 14802 Spring St. SW., and multiple properties stretching from DuPont to other locations along the I-5 corridor including Tacoma, Sumner and Kent.
Its largest warehouse in the state opened last month in Arlington in Snohomish County, with a grand opening ribbon cutting Sept. 14. The nearly 3-million-square-foot, five-story facility is set to employ 1,200 workers when fully operating, according to The Seattle Times.
