| Show n m Standard-Examin- ‘City of Destiny’ finally live up to Tacoma Wash enjoying high-tec- Local News Editor: Sunday December 3 2000 er h renassiance The Associated Press tCOMA Wash - For more than 100 years -ever since the Klondike Gold Rush secured Seattle’s role as the dominant city on Puget Sound in 1897 - this blue-colltown to the south has been the underdog Until lately all the recent high-tec- h cash and glory had been concentrated in the Seattle area as well ar Over the years Tacoma was best known for the sulfurous odor generated by its pulp-mi- ll plants And even that distinction is pretty much gone there is just one mill left now that big timber’s heyday has passed and the “aroma of Tacoma” has long since been reduced by filters 625-42- 13 may name More than 100 new companies have settled here in the past two years drawn by the scale the real estate market helpful local government proximity to Seattle and utility Tacoma Powteleer’s $100 million high-spee- d communications network city-own- “This city has a vision and a mission They’re reinventing the city around the business space and what I would call said Karen Worsted vice president of information security for Menlo Park Calif-base- d Atomic Tangerine a consulting firm She opened the company office here in August Tacoma with a population of 87000 vs 540000 in Seattle juts north into Puget Sound with the Olympic Mountains as a backdrop Mount Rainier looms on the southern horizon 1 “I feel like I’ve died and gone to heaven” Worstell said “It’s d the same company the same exciting work” but at the end of the day “I drive 18 miles to my house and sit on the deck on the water and look at the Milky Way” fast-pace- But destiny finally may have arrived for the City of Destiny -a boastful moniker coined in the 1880s that recently had been considered a cruel joke With Seattle choking on its own success 30 miles to the north - high real estate prices some of the worst traffic in the nation and downtown development that threatens to overwhelm the city’s character and obscure its world-clas- s views - people and businesses are coming to Tacoma “I tell people that everyone wants to live and work in Tacoma - they just don’t know it yet” said Eric Cederstrand the head cheercity’s leader and a commercial real estate broker Actually lots of them do know it Thousands of Seattle workers commute daily from Tacoma where housing prices are still within reach i In time the pace may pick up in the other direction e Tacoma’s commercial Seabout half prices average attle’s As for housing the averhome price in age single-famil- y Seattle was $288000 in September up from $223000 a year ago In Tacoma the price this fall averages $206000 - up from $144000 a year ago real-estat- While high-tec- h types are changing things at the upper end of the scale in Tacoma warehouses near the University of Washington's growing downtown satellite campus are drawing artists priced out of Seattle The city has zoned the area to create spaces where artists can live and work The turnaround for Tacoma came after 1 5 years of struggling with complicated Indian land claims street crime two water- - Greg Stewart (above left) and Rob Grenley stand along the Thea Foss Waterway with downtown Tacoma Wash behind them The two friends have been in business in their hometown since 1990 with their most recent venture being IDmicro developing communication applications (Left) artist Glass works by Tacoma-bor- n Dale Chihuly adorn the windows of the US District Courthouse in the restored Union Station in downtown Tacoma AT HOME IN TACOMA “ I tell people that evetyone wants to live and worii in Tacoma - they just don’t know it yet” - Eric Cederstrand chip-to-ch- ip commercial real estate broker front Superfund sites and a decaying downtown core Some of the biggest skeptics about Tacoma’s prospects are longtime Tacomans “There’ve been so many fits and starts over the last couple decades” said Rob Grenley who runs a microchip technology business But he also conceded: “Ten years ago downtown Taco The Associated Press ma was not a place you'd want to come home to It was a scary place to be” At the local office of Advanced Telcom Groupa §anta Rosa Calif-base- d telecommuni- cations company general manag er Bruce Green recalled his horror on arrival at his new office here in May 999 - a ruin of a building in a blighted downtown block with negligible foot traffic But the neighborhood has come alive over the past 1 8 1 months He calls Tacoma unique in offering an airport a seaport a railport and a cyberport No other US city “has the upside potential that Tacoma has” Green said “It's like Chi" cago at the turn of the century i with this coupon exp 12-15-- 00 j J Pillowtop Cover Extra-FirSpring Built in Edge Support 6 Gage Perimeter Bar Plush Quilt Cover Perma Firm Insulator m Lock Fast Box 85 Gage Wire Unit 4 Torsion Element Extra Edge Firmness Futon Frame Futon Mattress Zip On Cover 2 Pillows with All 5 Pieces coupon Frame & Matt 1 9 Frame & Matt $299 |
