Local internet provider opens headquarters, retail shop in downtown Tacoma
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- Lightcurve moved headquarters and retail to downtown Tacoma, offering weekday help.
- Owner Palisade rebranded Rainier Connect as Lightcurve after acquiring Mashell in 2023.
- Company plans fiber expansion across Washington and emphasizes local staff and service.
The telecommunications company formerly known as Rainier Connect has a new headquarters and retail site for customers in Tacoma.
The company, which rebranded as Lightcurve in November 2023, announced Monday its new headquarters in the Tacoma Centre at 1145 Broadway. Its new retail site is next door, 1135 Broadway.
The company offers high-speed internet, streaming TV and phone services.
Lightcurve’s new downtown Tacoma retail center is open weekdays 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and is where customers can meet with Lightcurve representatives to ask questions, deal with account issues and receive in-person support.
Beth Barnes is senior vice president of sales and marketing at Lightcurve. In an interview Friday with The News Tribune, Barnes said the relocation was a positive for employees and customers, establishing a central presence downtown.
Lightcurve’s offices and retail for years has been at the former Rainier Connect business site at 2516 S. Holgate St. adjacent to the Tacoma Self Storage building, between South 25th Street and South Tacoma Way.
“The Tacoma Centre is a great location,” Barnes said. “It has some added benefits with a coffee shop right there. You have food locations that are really close that employees can go and grab lunch at. There’s a fitness center and upgraded office space, where we have an open concept that really allows our employees to collaborate more while in office.”
From Click to Rainier Connect to Lightcurve
In 2020 Rainier Connect closed on a public-private partnership agreement to take over operations of Tacoma’s Click Network.
The News Tribune reported in December 2022 that global infrastructure management firm Palisade infrastructure was acquiring Tacoma-based Rainier Connect’s parent company, Mashell Inc., for an undisclosed sum.
The local telecom’s roots go back more than a century with the original Mashell Telephone and Telegraph Co.
The sale to Palisade closed in the fall of 2023, and with a new name also brought a new CEO-president for Rainier now Lightcurve, Anand Vadapalli.
Vadapalli had served as an advisor to Palisade for the transaction, according to a Palisade release about the rebranding in 2023.
Former Rainier Connect CEO Brian Haynes, according to his LinkedIn profile, now serves as an investor and advisor at EG Business Metrics, a business management/investment analytics firm in Tacoma.
Last year, Palisade closed on its acquisition of Consolidated Communications, Inc.’s assets, which included the networks in Ellensburg and Yelm.
Lightcurve’s service area, in addition to Tacoma, includes University Place, Fircrest, Lakewood, Fife, Graham, Spanaway, Puyallup, Eatonville, Roy, Kapowsin, Selah, the city of Kittitas, Ellensburg, Centralia and Chehalis.
“We do plan on increasing the number of homes passed with fiber to the home,” Barnes told The News Tribune, “and that’s constantly under evaluation. But there is significant investment planned by our owners of Palisade to expand our service area in Washington.”
Lightcurve has around 160 employees, and Barnes emphasized that while the parent company might have global reach, its service here remains hyper-local.
“We really work hard to invest in the local community and have local employees,” Barnes said . “The people you’re calling on the phone are not outside of Washington state. They are in Tacoma, they’re in Eatonville, they’re in Centralia, our local communities.”
Ribbon cutting for new Lightcurve location and pop-up
- A public ribbon-cutting and holiday reception to celebrate Lightcurve’s move downtown is planned from 4-6 p.m. Dec. 4 at 1145 Broadway. Attendees can RSVP at this link online. The invitation bills the event as an “ugly sweater party,” so attendees can wear their ugly holiday sweater attire. Building tours and prizes will also be part of the festivities.
- A pop-up celebration of its services arriving in Ellensburg is planned at Sugar + Spoon Nov. 21 in Ellensburg.
This story was originally published November 17, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
