‘Scrapping for solutions.’ Merchants work to stay afloat amid Point Ruston’s troubles

A collection of Point Ruston businesses is making a renewed push to promote their shops, hoping to attract more customers to the upscale retail-dining-residential development.

The effort comes amid continuing legal action involving various LLCs in receiverships tied to parcels at the site and construction lenders working to recoup tens of millions of dollars in unpaid debt.

Multiple parcels entered receivership last year , while the public market and garage were bought in a credit bid this summer. Undeveloped lots remain.

Unresolved debt at the development built atop a Superfund site also includes what’s owed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, as well as delinquent property taxes owed Pierce County.

Meanwhile, businesses there have had to find creative ways to rise above the legal drama and work on their own promotions and marketing.

The development’s website shows its news blog has not been updated since last September, while its Facebook page shows its last post from Oct. 12, 2023.

Chyna Willman is owner of Grit City Wellness, 5005 Main St., Suite 119. She is among the Point Ruston business owners who have worked for more than a year to get a merchants group off the ground at the master-planned community that straddles the cities of Ruston and Tacoma.

Their work has culminated with a new website for the businesses, www.waterfrontmerchants.com , launched earlier this month, and new name for the group.

The Waterfront Merchants Alliance “aims to make Point Ruston a premier destination for shopping, dining, and family fun,” according to the group’s recent news release.

The group says the website will offer “the most up-to-date information on parking, transportation, and events. Whether you’re planning a quick trip to a favorite restaurant or looking for the next big community celebration, this website has you covered!”

The site lists 24 merchants and offers directions, parking instructions, transit options, nearby attractions and an event calendar.

Willman told The News Tribune in a recent interview that the efforts aim to put a positive spotlight back on the local merchants instead of the site’s ongoing legal battles.

The effort has not been without its challenges.

“It’s a really strange situation,” she said. “We’re doing this like, four steps forward, three steps back, two steps forward, one step back.”

Action brings letters from attorney

An initial effort earlier this year to launch the business group and a separate effort for a farmer’s market instead attracted cease-and-desist letters regarding their promotional names.

The letters came from an attorney representing Point Ruston LLC, the site’s overarching business entity.

Originally, the merchant group was formed and registered with the state as the Merchant’s Alliance at Point Ruston Waterfront. A farmers market organized by a contractor was registered as the Farmers Market at Point Ruston Waterfront.

The letters contended trademark infringement for using “Point Ruston” in the entities’ names.

In the letters, copies of which were obtained by The News Tribune, attorney Steven Willock wrote that the use of Point Ruston in the name “appears to be made with the intent to trade on the goodwill associated with Point Ruston, LLC’s ‘Point Ruston’ (trade)mark.”

The letters added that use of the Point Ruston name was also “likely to dilute the distinctive quality of Point Ruston, LLC’s famous ‘Point Ruston’ mark” and noted that “Point Ruston, LLC has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars marketing and advertising the Development and its amenities” in conjunction with the Point Ruston trademark.

The letters requested a name change but left open the possibility of licensing use of the name, for which the parties could reach out to the attorney or “contact Loren Cohen directly to confirm your proposed use(s) of the ‘Point Ruston’ mark.”

Cohen, son of Point Ruston’s original developer Michael Cohen, is affiliated with the LLC via separate governing LLCs listed on Point Ruston LLC’s corporate filing with the Washington Secretary of State’s office.

Willman said the earlier effort was in no way meant to harm the site, its image or brand.

Willman told The News Tribune, “We were looking at bringing the farmers market, and really just to bring healing to the community and help everyone and just try to make things better.”

The farmers market idea was abandoned, and the merchants opted to change the group’s name rather than take on an expensive, prolonged legal fight.

“Fortunately, we were in a position where we hadn’t launched our website yet or anything,” she added. “I did have to pay an attorney, of course, to respond and then legally change our name.

“So we did that, and we just carried on.”

Scanning the merchants’ website, the words “Point Ruston” are not on the home page.

“The Waterfront Merchants welcome you to the South Sound’s premier destination for well-curated shopping, health and beauty salons, eclectic dining options, and family entertainment,” the website says.

“Ideally situated minutes from Tacoma and Ruston, visitors and locals can enjoy vibrant experiences and one-of-a-kind views with access to a truly world-class public amenity, the Waterwalk.”

Still seeking improvements

Future improvements Willman and the group hope to tackle include better cell reception to access its parking website from the QR code posted on signs and improving bus transit with a stop “right outside the market,” she said.

Rebecca Japhet, communications manager for Pierce Transit, told The News Tribune in response to questions that the agency’s planning staff has been meeting with “municipalities throughout Pierce Transit’s service area to get their input about future bus service” and that one of those meetings was with the City of Ruston.

“City staff inquired about siting a bus stop at Point Ruston,” she wrote. “A bus stop location has been identified on Ruston Way, in front of the Market. Pierce Transit requested that Ruston make some improvements to the site, including some minor concrete work and a crosswalk.”

No decisions have been made on “whether we will be able to locate a permanent stop there or how we would fund additional bus service to get to that location,” Japhet wrote.

“Pierce Transit has routes that travel along North 45th and Pearl, but we do not currently serve Ruston Way,” she noted. “That has been a challenging location given the limited number of safe bus pullouts and stops.”

She added that Ruston Way for now is served by Pierce Transit’s “ Ruston Runner ” service.

“If we were to provide bus service along Ruston (Way), including to Point Ruston, it would require additional resources, including extra drivers and funds for the additional service hours,” Japhet wrote.

Willman and the merchants also have been doing research on establishing a Business Improvement Area, which could create another source of funding via assessments on businesses that could be applied toward revitalization and site management. Such entities are overseen by local stakeholders, such as property owners, businesses and residents.

BIAs commonly help fund “maintenance, improvement, and promotion of their commercial district,” according to a 2019 BIA review/report from the City of Seattle’s Office of Economic Development.

Seattle at that time listed 10 BIAs in its report.

Tacoma so far has one, a downtown BIA.

“The merchants alliance has organized itself just in time to have conversations with all of these new owners and say, ‘Hey, there’s a pathway for us all to thrive and flourish through this very sticky process,’” Willman told The News Tribune on Sept. 20.

Less than a week later, Willman said the BIA effort was for now on pause, per recommendation from an outside consultant group and officials with the City of Tacoma.

Maria Lee, media representative for the City of Tacoma, told The News Tribune in response to questions, “We work with a group called Uncommon Bridges to determine if BIAs are feasible in other areas besides our downtown core, which is where our only BIA currently is.

“We agreed that it is not feasible in Point Ruston at this time. Any activities in the private rights-of-way would need approval of all private owners.”

Additionally, “The receivership issues at Point Ruston are not settled, a process which will likely take time,” Lee wrote.

Willman said frustrations have grown among the merchants as the lawsuits and receiverships grind on.

“There has been no one to turn to for advocacy or resolution on everything from parking and safety to sales and marketing,” Willman told The News Tribune via email in response to follow-up questions.

“With so many new owners entering the space, it appeared to us like a potential solution for Point Ruston’s many moving parts,” she wrote.

Given the latest turn, “We may be able to accomplish quite a bit without forming a BIA,” she added, perhaps something funded via memberships or sponsorships.

In an interview Oct. 2, Willman said that perhaps a volunteer, rather than mandated approach among the merchants might work; “a BIA without it being a BIA.”

‘Perilous’ finances

If a BIA or coordinated volunteer effort ever does come to pass, it could help fill the current void in oversight created in the Point Ruston Owner’s Association’s receivership.

The owner’s association was incorporated by Loren Cohen in 2014, according to state filings. It was designed to function as the center of the development’s on-site governance and administration management, with Cohen as sole director.

For now, the receiver, Revitalization Partners of Seattle, is overseeing PROA as a third-party custodial receiver, which was sought by a collection of condo associations earlier this year and later granted in Pierce County Superior Court.

Revitalization Partners as a custodial receiver is working to oversee the governance, finances and management of PROA.

Revitalization Partners’ senior director Kern Gillette attested in a recent signed declaration in PROA’s receivership case, “At the time of RP’s appointment, PROA’s financial position was, and it remains, perilous.”

The receiver has continued to use Rainier Property Services, a Cohen-connected entity, as PROA’s onsite property manager.

Gillette also noted in his declaration, “There is a high level of distrust between many of PROA’s members and Loren Cohen. ...”

Attorneys representing PROA/Cohen did not respond to a request for comment from The News Tribune.

Gillette attested that keeping on RPS was viewed as “a pragmatic temporary path to learning what it needed to know about PROA’s finances and administrative practices, and to keep the institutional knowledge” of one of RPS’ employees.

He added that Revitalization Partners “is actively working to terminate its contract with RPS and enter into a new management contract with an established outside property management firm not controlled by Loren Cohen.”

According to the recent PROA filings, the receiver was still learning new things about the site, contending that “nominal maintenance, if any, had been performed on the garage since 2021.”

Willman told The News Tribune on Sept. 25 that a Q4 marketing proposal submitted in August had been declined by the receiver on behalf of PROA, according to a letter she received from their special counsel.

Gillette did not respond to a request for comment from The News Tribune regarding the merchant alliance’s work or marketing proposal.

Meanwhile, work remains on other topics, including improving parking for both customers and the site’s employees.

There also remains the matter of promoting the next round of October events. The alliance’s news release listed a Trick or Treat Pet Parade, 3-6 pm Oct. 26, and a “Trick or Treat Extravaganza,” 4-7 p.m. Oct. 31, which encourages families to come collect candy from merchants. Dining discounts and Halloween-themed menu items are planned at participating restaurants.

“We are not experts in this, just a group of folks scrapping for solutions on how to survive,” Willman said.