New apartments planned for Tacoma’s Lincoln District, replacing retail/business strip
More apartments are coming to Tacoma, this time at a familiar longtime retail business corner in the city’s Lincoln District.
Apollo Heights Apartments is proposed for the corner of South 38th and South G streets, currently the home of Lincoln Beauty School. Plans call for demolition of the site and construction of a six-story, 130-unit apartment building with 73 parking stalls (underground) and more than 5,000 square feet of commercial space on the ground floor.
The development is proposed for what is now 702, 708 and 710 S. 38th St., according to a development representative.
“Amenity spaces,” according to plans filed with the city, include 2,990-square-foot rooftop deck and a “fully landscaped” 1,830-square-foot open courtyard with seating areas, barbecues and fire pit.
The apartment building will include a fitness room.
According to the Pierce County Assessor-Treasurer online property portal, the original portion of the building with a residential unit dates back to 1912, with a shopping center and warehouse built in 1916 and further on-site upgrades in 1998.
Information regarding demolition, application for a 12-year multifamily property tax exemption, and SEPA land use for project permitting were submitted to the City of Tacoma between Sept. 15-20.
The demolition application notes, “Demolition of existing building comprised of retail and 1 apartment unit. The apartment unit will be vacant at time of demolition.”
The city lists Jabooda Homes of Mercer Island as the developer, though a separate LLC is the current building owner, according to county tax records.
Jabooda’s website shows the bulk of its construction in Seattle. The Tacoma project listed on the site is the only non-Seattle project under the website’s “Coming Soon” section for apartment projects.
Kaitlyn Huynh, office manager for Jabooda Construction, told The News Tribune in response to questions that “all existing businesses on site including Lincoln Beauty School will be more than welcome to come back in the retail space once the building is completed.”
“Jabooda and its partner are strongly confident about Tacoma and Pierce County’s potential,” Huynh said via email. “This is one of the most essential reasons” to develop and build the project “despite currently high interest rate situation countrywide.”
Huynh added that it was the company’s first mixed-use project in Pierce County, “and won’t be the last.”
“Assuming permits are approved in 2024, we plan to start construction in first quarter of 2025,” Huynh wrote, with the entire process taking up to two years.
According to its MFTE filing, the budget for the project is $25 million.
The complete estimated rental chart submitted with MFTEs for City Council consideration, listing both market rate and affordable unit rents under the 12-year version, had not been generated as of Oct. 3, but proposed rates for the 26 rent-restricted units were listed as follows:
▪ Studios: 375 square feet, $1,247.
▪ One-bedroom, one bath: 516 square feet, $1,425.
▪ Two-bedroom, two bath: 954 square feet, $1,603.
A pre-application for a similar apartment project at the site, then called “Lee Apartments,” was submitted to the city in February. That was followed by an initial land-use application submitted in August to combine four parcels at the site for “future building development” at that time called Lincoln Heights Apartments, followed by the current September land use application for Apollo Heights.
