Plans return for satellite parking at Point Ruston. Here’s what changed
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- Point Ruston satellite parking plan returns to permitting with revisions.
- Revised pre-app now has 47 stalls on narrow strip and exits to Ruston Way.
- Plan says lot will support businesses at Building 5 at Point Ruston.
A plan for a parking lot along Ruston Way to accommodate a Point Ruston retail/office building is back in permitting with the City of Tacoma.
Building 5, 4924 Main St., originally was envisioned in 2019 as an office building at the mixed-use upscale development that serves as a cap to a Superfund site (the area of the former Asarco smelter).
In October 2023, UnitedHealth Group subsidiary Optum appeared to be a future tenant for Building 5 in plans filed that month.
The building’s construction stalled over construction-finance debt, and the LLC owner went into receivership in 2024.
The plaintiff in the receivership case, 1st Security Bank of Washington, has advanced funding for continued construction, Pierce County Superior Court records indicate.
It now appears plans are moving forward to complete the next phase of parking for the building.
Parking lot plans change from 2023
The first round of pre-application plans were presented in 2023. That proposal, according to the city scoping comment memo on the project and a submitted site plan, called for right-in-only entry off Ruston Way and an exit onto North 49th Street.
The plan also called for more than 100 stalls.
The latest pre-application, filed Feb. 10, would add 47 stalls on a narrow property strip in the satellite lot to supplement Building 5’s spaces, with the lot exiting onto Ruston Way, no longer extending to North 49th.
A project narrative of the scope of the work shared with The News Tribune described the lot as offering “additional parking for businesses located within Building 5 at Point Ruston ... .”
It noted, “Building 5 was recently completed ... but has limited parking and this satellite parking lot would help to meet market demand for parking, making marketing and leasing of the building spaces more desirable.”
“Updates” to the 2023 plan were made “to address the comments received from the City in its 8/24/23 1st review memo,” it noted. The narrative cited the reduction in parking spaces as well as designing the lot “entirely outside of the 200-foot offset from the Ordinary High Water Mark.”
“Additionally, the project proposes frontage improvements on Ruston Way, parking lot landscape improvements, and a mid-block crosswalk on Ruston Way,” it said.
Neither the 2023 plan nor the latest pre-app offered any specifics on parking restrictions for the lot — whether all or some of the stalls will be strictly reserved for workers at Building 5, for example.
The News Tribune sent questions to the building’s receiver, the attorney for 1st Security Bank, and agents listed as representing the site in marketing material, none of whom had responded by Thursday afternoon.
A court order issued in September 2025 allowed for sitewide common area parking stalls at Point Ruston to be free of charge, which includes the site’s garage and street stalls not marked by ‘reserved’ or ‘private’ signs specific to businesses or condominiums.
The pre-app is the first sign of a new project for Point Ruston in recent years amid receiverships and debt collection. Last month, another site investor, TerraCotta Group, made a presentation at the Ruston City Council meeting of its future plans for development on the Ruston side of the site.
Previous reporting from The News Tribune contributed to this report.
