LONGVIEW — McMenamins may be pulling back on a project in Tacoma, but company representatives confirmed last week that they’re moving ahead with a $10 million hotel and restaurant at the Port of Kalama.
The Portland-based brewpub and hotel chain has had two projects in the works in Tacoma: one to restore the Old City Hall and another to renovate the Elks Lodge.
Two years ago, the Tacoma City Council picked McMenamins as the lead prospective developer to turn the Old City Hall into a 60-room hotel and entertainment venue, according to The News Tribune. But now McMenamins said it needs to focus on developing the Elks Lodge and other projects first.
“Our stance hasn’t changed, but we’ve also always emphasized that we need to first get the Elks Lodge project next door transformed and open,” Renee Rank Ignacio, marketing director for McMenamins, said by email.
Tacoma officials have been shopping around for other new investors and developers for months, The News Tribune reported earlier this month.
“Regarding Kalama, everything is also moving along as planned. We look forward to opening in 2018,” Rank Ignacio said.
New vs. old buildings
The fact that the Port of Kalama is building the shell of the building makes the project financially feasible.
“It helps tremendously,” said Mark Wilson, Port of Kalama executive director. An updated state law allows the port to build the shell of the hotel and then turn it over to McMenamins to build out the interior. The port will recover its construction costs through its lease with the company. Between the port’s and the company’s initial investments, the final price tag could be $9 million to $10 million.
Wilson said the port is on track to hand off the building’s keys to McMenamins by early October. The hotel is slated to open in February or March.
Construction workers have completed extensive groundwork, including installing 200 stone pilings to make the foundation more earthquake resilient, Wilson noted.
This week workers are framing the first floor and installing joists for the second floor.
“It’s actually exciting now there’s something to see. We’ve been constructing for months now and we got something out of the ground,” Wilson said.
McMenamins has reputation for restoring old buildings, but the Kalama project won’t be its first new facility. McMenamins also is developing a new pub in Beaverton, Ore., and its waterfront restaurant in Vancouver was a new building, too. The other Vancouver location is in a strip mall.
The three-story, 30,000-square-foot Kalama hotel will have 40 rooms. The first floor will feature a brewery, restaurant and pub, a bottle shop and meeting and banquet space.
The building will be modeled after an early-1900s Hawaiian inn, with tropical and native touches blending with elements of Kalama’s history. McMenamins expects 75 to 100 people to work at its Kalama location.
