Tacoma’s old Wonder Bread bakery was boarded up. Now it’s ready for a fresh start
According to lore — or, rather, the promotional ad copy of the 1950s — the large brick building at South 7th and Sprague in Tacoma was once “one of the most fabulous bakeries anywhere in the world.” Remodeled in 1958, the year it celebrated its 30th anniversary, the bakery boasted a capacity of 90,000 loaves of bread per day and was equipped with an “incredible machine” that could wrap and slice 60 loaves per minute
It was “the most modern bakery in Washington,” ads in The News Tribune promised, built for the production of a miraculously modernized staple that helped build strong bodies in “12 ways.”
In Tacoma, it was where Wonder Bread was made.
Now, it’s looking for a fresh start.
Thanks to its prominent location and the time it spent as the go-to spot for anyone looking for day-old bread and bargain Twinkies, the former Wonder Bread bakery and Hostess outlet store on Sprague is familiar to many long-time Tacomans. It has been vacant for years now, the victim of changing diets and economics. As it slowly fell into disrepair, its windows were boarded up and neglect set in, making it more of an eyesore than an object of nostalgia.
Where some saw a sign of despair and community disinvestment, a commercial real estate company with long ties to Tacoma saw an opportunity.
In 2018, Clover Capital purchased the property for just over $1 million. Two years later, the building has been renovated and redone, with a goal of keeping its historical character intact, according to Neal Mulnick, a principal at the company.
Before Tacoma’s eyes, the property — which includes roughly 24,000 square feet of potential retail or office space and 13,000 square feet of warehouse — has gone from blight to potential bright spot in a neighborhood that deserves one, sparking a mix of interest and sentimentality.
As a tribute to the building’s history, the bright red, yellow, blue and white sign has been cleaned up, Mulnick noted, with the backlighting repaired to restore its glow. All that’s left is finding the right commercial occupant, he said.
Clover Capital’s preference is to lease the building, Mulnick indicated, but the property has also been listed for sale, in case that makes more sense to a prospective buyer.
Like many, Mulnick is eager to see what comes next.
“Our goal was really to keep as much character and as many original elements as possible. We didn’t know what the building would be used for, but we said, ‘This is a cool building, and if we kind of get it up to the place where other people can see what we do ... we’ll find a good use for it,” Mulnick told The News Tribune on Wednesday.
“A lot of these old buildings are just super hefty in the way they’re built; they’re over-built for what they are. They stood the test of time, and have character,” Mulnick continued. “When you walk through you see a lot of elements that don’t exist anymore, and you probably couldn’t even afford to do it if you wanted to.”
Since acquiring the empty property, Mulnick said, he’s enjoyed learning about the bakery’s history, which is steeped in Tacoma flavor. First opened in 1913, it was purchased in 1928 by Continental Baking Co., the makers of Wonder Bread and a fledgling line of Hostess products. The bakery’s original owners, the Matthaei family, unloaded the facility to focus attention on The Roman Meal Company, which they also owned.
Mulnick said the century old property is remarkable in many ways, from the double-hung windows to the wood timber ceilings. It’s the kind of building that’s “just built in a way that they’re not built anymore,” he said, which is one of the things that attracted Clover Capital to the project.
According to Mulnick, Clover Capital is a three-person team, including his wife, Michele, and father-in-law Paul Etsekson. The business — which got its start in heavy truck parts — dates back four generations in Tacoma, which provided another reason for their interest in historic preservation. Before Clover Capital purchased the bakery, there was talk of tearing it down, he said.
“We just thought this was an amazing opportunity to save this building,” Mulnick said.
From her perch at the nearby Starbucks drive-thru — where she’s worked since 2017 — Kelly McDonald has seen the transformation firsthand.
As a kid growing up in Tacoma, McDonald, 47, remembers visiting the outlet bakery one or twice a month, and how her parents — who were typically stingy with sugar — would let her and her sister pick out a treat each time.
“I always got a Hostess pie, the blackberry one,” McDonald said. “My little kid brain was like, ‘This is the best bang for my buck.’ My sister usually got apple.”
Vince Kueter, who arrived in Tacoma 30 years ago as a young librarian, remembers living nearby and occasionally visiting, largely out of curiosity. He wasn’t a huge fan of Wonder Bread, but he has always loved a bargain, and there was something about the building’s “old school” vibe and “kitsch” that intrigued him, he said.
Kueter recalled the outlet store was fairly small and brightly lit by fluorescent lights, while the large brick bakery that housed it was architecturally unique and a little mysterious.
Sometimes, he would look in the windows for clues about how the bread was made, he said.
Occasionally, Kueter admitted, he would go home with something sweet.
“I mean, who doesn’t like Ho Hos?” Kueter said.
From her job across the street, McDonald said customers often speculated with her about the state of the old Wonder Bread bakery, while spit-balling ideas for what it could become. For a while, she was keeping her finger crossed for a bar-slash-laundromat.
These days, McDonald said, she’s just happy someone finally took an interest in the building and reinvigorated it.
‘It’s nice to see it come to life again,” McDonald said.
“I’m excited to see whatever goes in there.”
This story was originally published March 12, 2021 at 5:05 AM.
