Construction to start on Tideflats fire station near LNG facility in 2020. Future of historic station unknown
Construction of a new fire station across the street from Puget Sound Energy’s planned liquefied natural gas plant on the Tideflats is expected to start in early 2020.
Tacoma City Council agreed on Tuesday to award a $4.3 million contract to Pease & Sons Inc. for the construction of a 5,600-square-foot, single-story station at 3520 E. 11th St., at the corner of Taylor Way and East 11th Street.
The building will have two apparatus bays and working/sleeping quarters for four fire department staff and include a laundry, exercise room and restrooms with showers.
Construction is anticipated to be completed in February 2021, said Tacoma Fire Department spokesperson Joe Meinecke.
The Tideflats has not had a fully staffed fire station since 2012. Response times have suffered as a result.
Some Northeast Tacoma residents have expressed concern about safety impacts as industrial projects gain momentum in the port, said City Council member Robert Thoms.
The new station can restore those services, said Thoms. He told The News Tribune on Wednesday he was excited to see the station built.
“This was and has been a priority of mine for six years now to restore and enhance services to our industrial areas and response for (Northeast) Tacoma and Tideflats in the event of an emergency,” he said.
Historic fire station
The new station will be built on the same parcel on the Hylebos Peninsula as the historic building known as Fire Station 5.
The 91-year-old year old station, which is on both the national and local historic registers, will not be torn down, as was considered by the city in the past. To do so would have required approval from the Landmarks Preservation Commission.
Instead, city staff is studying the level of improvements the building would need in order to be used for something else.
What that use will be hasn’t been decided. The first priority is getting started on a new station, Meinecke said.
In the meantime, the historic building will be used as-is for storage.
LNG facility
The bid for construction of the station was awarded a week after the LNG facility was granted a final construction permit from the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency.
City documents show that Puget Sound Energy is financing the entire $4.3 million for the new station.
The LNG facility is unable to operate without a fire station nearby. The city and PSE outlined an agreement in 2015 related to opening a new fire station.
“To meet the (requirements of) the environmental impact statement for the PSE facility, we need to have a facility ready by the time they’re operational,” then-Tacoma Fire Chief Jim Duggan said in 2018, according to The News Tribune archives.
This story was originally published December 20, 2019 at 6:00 AM.
