TACOMA, Wash. — It’s been a city-owned parking lot for 35 years. Now a developer from Vietnam wants to buy it and build apartments, drastically altering the face of a south Tacoma neighborhood.
The city purchased the lot at 1210 Tacoma Ave. South in 1980 with plans to build a parking garage for paying customers and the nearby public library. But that project never got off the ground.
Now HCQ LLC, a firm based in Vietnam with offices in Houston, wants to buy the lot for $750,000 and build a six-story apartment complex and street -level retail.
Some locals like the idea, like Michael Adkins, who says he goes to the library several times a week.
“I would think it would be a plus,” Adkins said.
Nick Anderson who owns a Crossfit gym next door isn’t so sure.
“I’m mixed on how I feel about that,” Anderson said.
City officials met with investors and management from HCQ during a visit to Asia last May and came away impressed with their work.
“They’re a very large builder, developer in Vietnam,” said Debbie Bingham, project development specialist with the city’s economic development council. “We toured a bunch of their projects and they have a very good reputation.”
HCQ is yet another foreign company pumping money into Tacoma real estate.
Chinese investment firms are already behind a handful of projects in the city, including an ambitious town center-style retail and residential development just blocks away.
Nick Anderson, who owns a CrossFit gym next door to the Tacoma avenue parking lot, says he'll wait and see if the planned apartment complex is a good idea.
“If someone comes in and tries to bring in million-dollar condos, no,” Anderson said. “That’s not this neighborhood one bit. Definitely, it needs to be the right builder and the right kind of building.”
HCQ has not submitted plans for the development awaiting approval by the City Council before purchasing the land and beginning a feasibility study.
Cox Media Group
