Tacoma not the only place seeing apartment boom. This small city set to get 380+ units
Tacoma is regularly in the headlines for an explosion of apartment development. Now another area is about to see a population transformation.
A massive new apartment project is set to bring hundreds of units to Fircrest. That’s in addition to hundreds more apartments already in construction nearby.
The Mildred Street Prose Development will redevelop a more-than 9-acre site at 2119 Mildred St. W., home of Metal Marine Pilot from the late 1950s to 2000.
Plans for the Prose site were submitted in June 2022 by the Seattle office of Alliance Residential. The project calls for four multistory buildings that will offer commercial spaces and 389 apartments with parking. A central plaza is part of the design.
According to the project’s site plan, two buildings will be 5-story mixed-use, with commercial on the first floor and residential units above. The other two buildings will be 4-story residential with parking garages. Approximately 9,968 square feet of retail/ commercial space is included.
The units span in size from studios averaging 505 square feet to two-bedroom lofts averaging 1,554 square feet.
The project has been making its way through Fircrest’s planning process. A hearing is set later this month for public comment on the preliminary site plan approval, according to a public notice.
The project has its a city project page showing the project through its various planning stages.
Planning and development are complicated, requiring four separate land-use applications, according to the city.
Environmental cleanup remains a factor through the state’s Voluntary Cleanup Program, which helps property owners who are independently cleaning up a site. According to the department, it provides technical assistance for a fee.
“Successful cleanups completed through the VCP receive a No Further Action opinion, which can be helpful when selling a property or applying for a loan,” the Department of Ecology program says on its website.
An NFA is not listed with the site. Ecology on its website lists the site status as “cleanup started,” with the most recent update filed in 2019.
According to a site-plan review, “The property was formerly operated for the design and manufacture of marine automatic pilots and other marine navigational aids (e.g., compasses) from approximately 1957 to 2000.”
The site was the focus of cleanup activity in the 1990s, including the removal of underground storage tanks, according to the 2019 report with Ecology.
Cleanup also was noted in 2000 and 2012 “to remove and properly dispose of all of the contaminated soil above the applicable cleanup levels in the affected areas,” according to the Prose project site-plan review.
According to Jayne Westman, administrative services director with the City of Fircrest, Prose site work could begin as early as May.
“The first meeting with the Planning Commission was in July 2022,” she told The News Tribune via email. “The zoning map amendment was approved in November 2022.”
A representative for Alliance Residential did not respond to a request for more information from The News Tribune.
The Scottsdale, Arizona-based company has regional branches nationwide, and opened its first Prose development in 2020 just west of Houston. The company said in its Katy, Texas, opening that the Prose brand, introduced in 2018, was created in “response to a growing need for cost-efficient rental housing,”
The Alliance Residential website touts Prose as a “highly cost-efficient product constructed to a lower price point, targeting rents up to 20 percent lower than comparable apartments.”
It would be the second large apartment complex project to come to the Mildred Street area since 2022.
Alta at Narrows Urban Village
The Prose project is near the former Narrows Plaza Bowl and AMC Narrows Plaza 8 sites, which are undergoing redevelopment for a separate multi-building apartment project. Those sites sit on the University Place/Tacoma municipal borders, with plans going through Pierce County Planning and Land Services.
The 274-unit project, Alta at Narrows Urban Village, 2124 and 2208 Mildred St. W., is being developed by Atlanta-based Wood Partners. It includes seven apartment buildings, each of approximately 24,275 square feet, one apartment building of approximately 50,050 square feet, and one of approximately 57,025 square feet. Each has its own parking area. Seven of the buildings would be three stories each, and the other two are planned at four stories each. A pool and plaza also are part of the project.
Demolition took place last year shortly after the property sale. A retail real estate listing notes the project is tentatively scheduled for completion in September.
To offer comment
The Fircrest hearing examiner will conduct a public hearing at 3 p.m. Feb. 28 at City Hall, 115 Ramsdell St., Fircrest to receive public comments on the preliminary site-plan approval for the proposed 2119 Mildred St. Prose project. Residents can submit written comments before 12 p.m. Feb. 28 to Jayne Westman, Planning/Building Department, 115 Ramsdell St., Fircrest, WA 98466; or via email: jwestman@cityoffircrest.net.
More details on the project: cityoffircrest.net/mildred-development-project/.
This story was originally published February 20, 2023 at 5:00 AM.
