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Finally, a plan to keep Russell that I think I might like. The reason? It’s mostly private and less public.

There’s a plan described in a Dan Voelpel piece from last week (The future of Russell Investments in downtown Tacoma) that sounds pretty good on the surface. It centers around a Seattle company called Ilahie Holdings. Here’s a link to a list of their current holdings. I don’t know their financial picture but the project talked about in the TNT piece looks to be bigger than anything they currently hold. I hope they’re up to it.

I don’t want to quote too much of someone else’s work, but a chunk of it is relevant to this post so I’m going to stretch it a little. I’d quote others but I can’t find much on the subject.

Phase 1 involves building a 10- to 25-story tower across A Street that includes two block-long trading floors. The tower would incorporate the narrow white marble Italian renaissance-style Bowes Building at 902 A St., protected by both the Tacoma and national historic registers.

The Russell Indexes, which track changes in world financial markets, would run continuously like a stock market ticker on digital screens across the outside of the trading floor, la Times Square in New York. A helipad atop the tower would allow Russell’s cadre of traveling executives and guests to bypass Interstate 5 traffic delays for quick trips to and from Sea-Tac Airport.

The plan could connect the current headquarters with the new construction via a skybridge or, if the city agrees to close A Street, a ground-level portico.

Phase 2 would add an office tower at the corner of South Ninth Street and Pacific Avenue.

Phase 3 – if needed – would involve the demolition of the recently remodeled 1903, six-story Provident Building, formerly the Security Building, to make way for more office space.

(The owners of the Provident Building had it added to the Tacoma Register of Historic Places last year. Demolition of a historic property could pose the only Achilles’ heel to Ilahie’s concept.)

All expansion phases could include ground-floor retail space and underground parking. A boutique hotel – for visiting Russell clients or Russell employees in Tacoma on temporary extended-stay assignment – would fit in phases 2 or 3.

If City Hall wants to play along in a public-private partnership, Dreon said, open space overpasses and stairways could link the expanded Russell campus to Fireman’s Park and over the cliff to the Thea Foss Waterway. [emphasis added]

It sounds like a good plan. I hope it comes together and works well for Russell. I want Russell to stay in Tacoma, I just don’t want it to cost too much to keep them. So from the article, here are some of my concerns. I’m guessing that they’ll be addressed in one way or another by ‘Project Destiny’, but I think it’s still a good idea to include this in the public discourse, especially since they’re not.

• I hope city hall doesn’t snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. They’ve shot themselves in the foot before, and I’m sure they’re capable of doing it again. Unfortunately, the taxpayer gets hit with the ricochet. Let’s hope they don’t mess this up.
• If city government is smart, they’ll let this play out as a private venture as much as possible. Who knows, maybe they’ll learn something about what the private sector is capable of instead of assuming that they need to be involved. This is business, not a campaign issue. The mayor and city council members can show up at the ground breaking ceremonies and take credit for all the stuff they didn’t do because that’s what politicians do best.
• Again, if city government is smart, they’ll cool it. They started this negotiation process on the wrong foot. They told their opponent (Russell) that they’d do anything to keep them here. So far they’ve lived up to that. But that’s not necessarily a good thing. Negotiations are a give-and-take process. When you start out promising to give everything, your opponent will only ask for more. It’s the way the (business) world works. So don’t offer too much in the way of fringe benefits. We don’t need to throw in parking, skybridges or streetcars unless we absolutely have to. And whatever is thrown in has to work financially for the city. (This is where the city is most likely to mess up, in my opinion.)
• What will this do to the value of other properties in downtown Tacoma. Towers going up will block views. Blocked views diminish property values. Is that just the price of progress? Will the city take that into account or will they trample the property rights of others? I’m all for towers going up in downtown Tacoma, but it has to be done fairly and equitably for everyone else.
• Why the big push? Why is ‘Project Destiny’ so large?
  

  At the headquarters of the Economic Development Board for Tacoma-Pierce County, President and CEO Bruce Kendall heads up Project Destiny – a semisecret multiagency, business and government effort to keep Russell Investments in Tacoma.

  Last week, at the EDB’s annual luncheon, Kendall told the crowd that 30 to 40 people work all day every day on Project Destiny.

  This week, Kendall said, Ilahie’s concept underscores a misunderstood element of Project Destiny.

  “This isn’t just about Russell,” Kendall said.

  I have to ask the question. Are these 30 to 40 people spending all of their time on Russell? Because if they are spending all (or most) of their time on Russell, then it is ‘just about Russell’. Next question, are those government employees who are on the taxpayer’s payroll?

• Same old song?
  

  “This city will be transformed into a corporate center of high-rises if we implement this strategy that the collective has embraced,” [Kendall] said, referring to Project Destiny. “It’ll work.”

  Uh huh. Same kind of thing we heard about Link (to nothing) Light Rail and the convention center. And didn’t we hear this about Russell in the 90’s when they built their current building?

There are other projects in Tacoma that could interest Russell enough to stick around if this one doesn’t work out.

In this series:
If Tacoma loses Russell (Part I)
If Tacoma loses Russell (Part II)
If Tacoma loses Russell (Part III)
If Tacoma loses Russell (Part IV)
If Tacoma loses Russell (Part V)
If Tacoma loses Russell (Part VI)
If Tacoma loses Russell (Part VII)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 25th, 2008 at 6:14 pm and is filed under FeedTacoma.com, Tacoma Contradictions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.