Goodbye one hotel brand, hello new one. Tacoma site near UWT plans makeover this fall
A familiar hotel name at the corner of South 21st Street and South C Street in Tacoma is set to undergo a revamp under a new brand.
Permit filings with the city of Tacoma dated May 8 show the Holiday Inn Express & Suites, 2102 S. C St., has plans to convert to a Tacoma Hilton Garden Inn.
Plans call for removal of a swimming pool and adding a full kitchen. Additionally, the guest laundry and fitness center will move to the first floor. Plans also call for adding two guest rooms where the fitness center and guest laundry are located. Mechanical permit filings show a new guest laundry planned, among other items.
Hilton hotel chain’s media relations did not respond to an inquiry from The News Tribune about the project this week. An email for the current hotel operation also did not respond by Friday evening.
The work, according to the filing, is valued at $250,000, with mechanical overhaul on site valued at an estimated $210,000. Work could start as soon as Sept. 1.
According to county records and News Tribune archives, the hotel and its parking structure were completed in 2012, and the site has operated as a Holiday Inn brand since then. The assessed value of the property is more than $20.6 million, according to the Pierce County Assessor-Treasurer online property portal.
The site was first purchased for hotel construction in 2006 by a Seattle-based hotel investment group, which still owns it. According to The News Tribune archives, development of the new Holiday Inn property took seven years of planning, negotiations and construction, a time span for the $18 million project that included the Great Recession.
The eight-story hotel at that time was the first new major hotel property to launch in the city since the Courtyard by Marriott Tacoma Downtown was completed in 2006.
