New mixed-use residential along the Foss? Property for sale is being marketed for such
A Tacoma waterfront property long planned for apartment or condo development is on the market.
The property referenced as Foss Harbor Marina Site 11 is along the Foss Waterway at 821 Dock St. It is owned by an entity affiliated with local investors Ted Johnson and Herb Simon.
Dave Speers is executive vice president of Kidder Mathews and has the site listing. He told The News Tribune in response to questions that Wednesday was its initial marketing day.
'The owners acquired a last segment of the property last year and decided it's time to sell,' Speers said via email.
The two-parcel site is 1.7 acres, 74,722 square feet adjacent to the 416 slip Foss Harbor Marina. It is zoned for high-density residential development and could accommodate 'at least 260 units over commercial and parking elements,' according to a sales flyer.
Renderings show a proposed five floors of residential units over two podium levels of parking accommodating 1.5 stalls per unit, along with ground floor of commercial space.
The asking price is $8 million.
The property is part of multiple decades-long effort to redevelop along the Thea Foss Waterway, on parcels both north and south of the Murray Morgan bridge. The waterway is part of the larger Commencement Bay Superfund site, and redevelopment was managed by the Foss Waterway Development Authority for more than 20 years.
FWDA's operating agreement expired at the end of 2020, and its work was absorbed by the city and Metro Parks Tacoma (now Parks Tacoma).
At the end of 2020, FWDA owned 10.07 acres of property. Of that, 5.64 acres transferred to Metro Parks Tacoma, 2.4 acres were intended for private development and 2 acres serve as home to the Foss Waterway Seaport museum.
The transferred park sites include the newly developed Melanie Jan LaPlant Dressel Park, which opened last year, and the planned Waterway Park, which is across the water from The Henry apartments, and George H. Weyerhaeuser Jr. Park, 2101 Dock St.
In 2021, Foss Harbor LLC came to the city with a proposal to partner with a third-party developer for a mixed-use project on Sites 10 and 11 north of the bridge.
The plan at that time was for approximately 330 market-rate apartments, 563 parking stalls, 145 parking stalls for the marina, 18,060 square feet of commercial space, resident amenity spaces, construction of the waterfront esplanade and view corridor enhancements.
The city would construct a seawall replacement already funded in the Capital Improvement Plan and scheduled for 2022.
Foss Harbor LLC also planned for a separate, three-story mixed-use development on Site 9, south of the bridge, it would develop on its own.
Up for council approval at that time were purchase-and-sale agreements between the city and Foss Harbor for Foss Waterway Sites 9 and 10, which the city owned, and development agreement for Foss Waterway Sites 9, 10 and 11. (The developers already owned Site 11).
The City Council approved the measure in June 2021, and the purchase-and-sale agreement was executed in July 2022.
At the time then-council member Lillian Hunter put into perspective how long it had taken just to get to that point in the process.
'The vision for this development really predates 2001,' she said. 'When Kelso Gillenwater came to town ... and he was the publisher of The News Tribune, we walked that area, and he had put dibs on one of the first townhouses that was going to be constructed at that time.
'And there was great energy for that,' she added, but noted that Gillenwater 'sadly passed in 1999. He never got to see his townhouse.'
Johnson at the meeting noted, 'This has been a long project for sure. We've gone through three different Foss Waterway Development Authority directors, two planning directors, three economic development directors and three city managers.'
In early 2023, Foss Harbor LLC came back seeking a proposed six-month extension to the due diligence tied to the purchase-and-sale agreement for Sites 9 and 10, because of reconfiguration of Site 10 from the new seawall.
The six months were added 'to allow time for a redesign of the Site 10 project,' according to the city's action memorandum.
According to city media representative Maria Lee, the city eventually closed on the sale of Foss Waterway Sites 9 and 10 to Foss Harbor in December 2024, for $1.97 million.
'The sites will be developed for support uses for the Foss Harbor Marina,' she said via email. 'This made way for marketing Site 11 for mixed-use development.'
Two sites remaining with the city include Site 8 (1131 Dock St.), which was the former Sea Scouts site, and Site 12 (535 Dock St.), a parking lot north of the Seaport Museum.
Among other nearby waterfront sites awaiting development is 1179 Dock St., next to Melanie Dressel Park. The property consists of three parcels and is privately owned. That site is on the market for $3.65 million. Its marketing material says, 'Potential may be a hotel, multifamily building, condos, marina and more.'
Another vacant lot, 1543 Dock St., is next to Thea's Landing. That site is owned by an entity affiliated with Hollander Properties of Bellingham and has long been planned for a hotel but has yet to move forward. The last development pre-application on file with the city for that parcel dates to 2018, which proposed a Homewood Suites valued at $35 million.
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