368-unit Tacoma apartment complex to offer Top Golf Swing Suite and co-working space
Apartment developers, recognizing the telecommuting rise among workers during the pandemic, are going all in on live-work spaces.
On Wednesday, a groundbreaking was set to mark the first apartment development in the Brewery District Opportunity Zone to also qualify for Tacoma’s 12-year multifamily tax exemption, approved earlier this year by the City Council.
Rook, a $105 million project at 1502 Fawcett Ave., will consist of 368 apartments and lofts in two, eight-story buildings above a first floor that will consist of co-working space, a Top Golf Swing Suite, fitness center and entertaining lounges, all for residents.
“It’s absolutely a live-work thing for people that are residents in the building, and it may also be a neighborhood, touch-down point for others,” said Trent Mummery, a principal with Trent Development, which is developing the site.
Regarding the Swing Suite, Mummery told The News Tribune in an interview Monday, “You can play much more than just golf. You can you can practice baseball, throwing a baseball, throwing a football. .... It’s also a full golf simulator, so you can play a variety of different golf courses throughout the world and prep or practice in a simulated driving range.
“As far as, will it be open to the public, we haven’t confirmed that yet. We may be selling memberships to our co-working space, which would include access to the Top Golf, and our fitness center and the other amenities that are in the building, so that’s still be to be determined, and something that our property management division will work on over the next couple of years before we open the doors.”
A landscaped courtyard will offer terraces and natural light for the inward-facing units. The rooftops will offer outdoor entertaining options on one tower with the other “designed as an outdoor relaxation room.”
The project also includes 268 parking stalls.
The project is set to be finished in 2023. The project team includes Studio 19 Architects and Rush Construction. Blanton Turner will manage the property.
The 12-year MFTE requires at least 20 percent of the apartments to be listed as affordable, meaning affordable to renters with household incomes no greater than 80 percent of the area median income, based on federal HUD data.
Opportunity Zone investment has become popular among developers to raise capital in return for tax incentives such as deferred capital gains, while the MFTE program exempts property taxes for 8 to 12 years on improvements that create four or more additional housing units.
Patrick Ashman, also a principal with Trent Development, told The News Tribune on Monday that “the multifamily tax exemption program is something we opted into just because part of the mission is to bring affordable workforce housing to these markets.”
Rook “is obviously a large-scale project... So, you know, bringing that affordability helps helps break it up a little bit,” he added.
Estimated rents for Rook’s apartments were shared with the city as part of its MFTE process earlier this year:
At the time of site purchase in February, Rook was the company’s seventh Opportunity Zone project in the past 12 months, “all emphasizing transit-oriented development for middle-income renters,” according to the company’s announcement at the time.
Trent Development’s other six multifamily sites are in Bellingham, Everett, Lynnwood, Seattle and SeaTac.
Ashman said it feels as though there are a lot more eyes on Tacoma now as a favorable market, with more developers interested as time goes by.
“I think that’s part of this OZ program, you need to attract capital into an area and then it starts a ripple effect. We believe in the area; I mean, it sure feels like there’s more retail coming to Tacoma and, you know that Brewery District and UW campus, it really feels like it’s been activated,” Ashman said.
“What drew us to the areas is, is the opportunity zone I mean, especially with everything that transpired over the last year and a half with COVID ... if this project was not an OZ, it would have been extremely difficult for us to finance especially at this scale,” he said.
He also said working with Tacoma was “extremely refreshing.”
“We’re accustomed to doing projects in Seattle, so as far as hurdles and obstacles, I mean, it was extremely refreshing working with City of Tacoma. There’s been a few little things, but nothing that they don’t work with us on and get through.” Ashman said.
This might not be their only project.
“We are looking at some other sites,” Mummery told The News Tribune. “We’re definitely very bullish on the area.
“We expect we’ll do more in Tacoma, but we can’t announce anything at this moment.”
