Tacoma Public Schools buys warehouse site on Orchard Street for $12M. Here’s why
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Tacoma Public Schools purchased a site for a central kitchen using 2024 bond funds.
- District plans will centralize food storage and production for the school system.
- Central kitchen aims to increase scratch cooking, anticipated opening fall 2027.
Tacoma Public Schools recently acquired an industrial site in the city as part of “an effort to streamline and improve warehouse and facilities operations” as plans move forward with a central kitchen for making the district’s meals.
The site, spanning 4401, 4403 and 4409 S. Orchard St. was sold to the district by Broadstone Cable LLC of Victor, New York for just under $12.1 million, according to sales records online. Funding for the purchase came through a 2024 capital bond, and the central kitchen appears on the district’s online list of school construction projects.
Tacoma Public Schools media representative Tanisha Jumper told The News Tribune via email in response to questions that the “warehouse purchase represents the end of the search for a central kitchen location ... . One building will be used primarily for central kitchen purposes, and the other for a variety of operations that will be moved from the district’s location at Union and Center.”
Jumper added, “Exactly what that will look like is currently in planning.” The district’s project page lists an anticipated opening for the central kitchen site in fall 2027.
A school newsletter from January 2024 cited the district’s need for a centralized food storage/production site and what it would mean for students: “Rather than relying largely on commercially processed and pre-packaged foods, the school district can increase scratch cooking and include fresher, more local ingredients in a cost-effective manner with a central kitchen.”
It also noted that Tacoma was at that time the only school district in the state with more than 20,000 students without centralized food storage and production, adding, “Meals are currently heated or prepared at 56 individual locations” throughout the district.
The board adopted a resolution to move forward on the site purchase at its Oct. 9 board business meeting. The sale was recorded Feb. 17.
