Apartments near I-5 and the former Harvester site among Tacoma October property sales

Two commercial property sales in Tacoma this month offer a glimpse in how such transactions are faring this year in Pierce County.

In the most-recent transaction, Olympic Sunset Apartments, 6634 Tacoma Mall Blvd., sold Oct. 17 for $6.87 million to an LLC affiliated with Archer Investment & Consulting/Archer Building Group of Redondo Beach, California.

The original listing price was $7.5 million.

The 39-unit, three-building site was built in the mid-’70s, and is west of Interstate 5 and behind shopping complexes that include Seattle Lighting and Rich’s Stoves, Spas and Patio.

The sellers were LLCs affiliated with Hays Properties of Kirkland, represented by commercial real estate firm Berkadia, who said it was the first recorded multifamily sale for the fourth quarter of 2024.

The site last sold in 2005 for just over $2.5 million.

A media representative for Berkadia told The News Tribune via email in response to questions that the buyer plans to renovate the units as they come available.

The property is managed by Olympic Property Management, which will continue to manage the site going forward, according to Berkadia.

Berkadia senior director Chad Blenz said in a statement sent to The News Tribune that he expected Olympic Sunset’s new ownership “will benefit from steady rent growth given the already tightening Tacoma rental market, coupled with a steep drop-off in new deliveries over the next 24 months.”

Jay Timpani is managing director and Brandon Lawler is senior director with the firm, and primarily work in Pierce County. In a joint statement responding to questions about the state of the local market, Timpani and Lawler pointed to the Landlord Fairness Code Initiative in Tacoma, a ballot measure that passed in the November 2023 general election.

The two noted its role amid a further cooldown this year in multifamily transactions.

The initiative, as described by the City of Tacoma in its FAQ page , “establishes requirements around notices to increase rent, move-in costs, pet fees, late fees, evictions, and economic displacement relocation assistance, health and safety requirements, and establishes enforcement and penalties.”

Timpani and Lawler, in their statement to The News Tribune, said that “For many it has made Tacoma a no-fly zone with no desire to continue to acquire because of this initiative, despite it once ranking as a top 5 rent growth city in the country.”

On the flip side, Timpani and Lawler added, “This has opened the market for more bullish investors who want to take advantage of the exodus of prospective buyers out of Tacoma.”

Figures from the Pierce County Assessor-Treasurer’s office show that sales of existing multifamily properties have been on the decline since 2022, after peaking in 2021 in a time period spanning 2020 to now.

According to the assessor’s office, total sales in 2020 were at 59 multifamily sites in Pierce County, in 2021 the total sales peaked at 70 before dropping to 48 in 2022 and 33 in 2023.

So far this year, the county has registered just 24 sales of existing multifamily sites.

Former restaurant site sold

The building that was formerly the longtime home to The Harvester restaurant in Tacoma, 15-29 N. Tacoma Ave.. in the Stadium District, sold Oct. 7 for $4 million to an LLC affiliated with Joe Mayer of Mayer Built Homes of Tacoma.

The seller was Tacoma Avenue Partners LLC. The LLC previously purchased the site in March 2023 in an estate sale for $2.35 million, according to county records.

LLCs affiliated with Mayer also own Walker Apartments, 405 6th Ave., and the adjacent gated parking lot at 444 St. Helens Ave. across from the Fabulous Fifties Hall and USA of Yesterday Motors. In 2022, plans were filed for new apartments at the parking lot site for a new 8-story apartment building with an upper level terrace and multiple lower levels of parking. Permit status for now with the city shows the city awaiting resubmittal/revisions.

No plans have been submitted for the North Tacoma Avenue site. The most recent permit called for removing metal and wood awnings and restoring the building to its original build, as well as add back transom windows.

Mayer did not immediately respond to request for comment last week about the site.

As for commercial sales in the county, such as Stadium District site, the assessor’s office showed sales of existing commercial sites also peaked in 2021, much like multifamily sites:

▪ 2020: 1,302 sales

▪ 2021: 1,528 sales

▪ 2022: 1,326 sales

▪ 2023: 873 sales

▪ 2024: 684 sales to date

In June 2023, The News Tribune reported that The Harvester had closed operations at the site at the end of May, roughly 50 years after an earlier generation of the family operators originally purchased the business.

The restaurant owner cited not only pandemic-era related challenges in keeping the site open, but also the “never-ending Sound Transit construction” as taking the biggest toll on the business.

Sound Transit ultimately debuted its extension of the T Line to the Stadium District and the Hilltop area west of downtown last September.

News Tribune archives contributed to this report.