Video shows longtime Tacoma cultural center being demolished. Here’s what’s replacing it
Work has begun to raze the former Asia Pacific Cultural Center in Tacoma and rebuild a larger center in its place.
Over the past decade the APCC has offered classes, activities, art and community events rooted in the cultures of 47 countries. It’s served about 200,000 people a year since opening in 1996, said executive director Faaluaina Pritchard.
Demolition began last week. Pritchard estimates it will take another week to clear debris from the site at 4851 South Tacoma Way. Currently the APCC is operating out of the Portland Avenue Community Center at 2513 E. Portland Ave., with plans to reopen at the South Tacoma Way site between April and June 2025, Pritchard said.
Despite many modifications to the building over the years, the building was simply too small for the need, Pritchard said.
The new center will be much larger, with 25% more auditorium space, a teaching kitchen for in-person culinary classes, an art gallery space, space for staff offices, a tea room, martial arts/dance studio, classrooms, gift shop, Asia Pacific library and Asian Pacific garden, according to a previous APCC building project presentation to the Board of Park Commissions in November 2021.
“We’re going to be expecting more than 300,000 people coming through on an annual basis,” Pritchard said. “It’s going to be a two-story building. In so many ways it’s going to enlarge the way that we serve the public. It’s going to be fabulous. And it’s going to look like us — the other building didn’t.”
The new building will be 18,500 square feet and cost about $18.5 million, with funding in part from the state, the federal government, the city of Tacoma, Pierce County, Port of Tacoma, individual donors and other corporate donors, Pritchard said. It will remain public park land.
No Garry Oaks will be removed with the new APCC development and no mature trees will be removed, according to Metro Parks.
Previous community discussions and center plans included a housing component, but that will not be part of the final development, according to an APCC frequently asked questions page about the building online.
