Nuisance Tacoma school property to be redeveloped into housing, urban village, plans show

The former Gault Middle School site has been a nuisance to the Eastside neighborhood for more than a decade, but a developer plans to transform the historic property into an urban village with housing.

The 7.3-acre school campus at 1115 E. Division Lane closed in 2009 and has attracted vandalism, litter and property damage during its vacancy. Last month, a fire broke out at the school, which caused superficial damage to the front office area, according to Tacoma Public Schools’ director of strategic planning Alicia Lawver.

On Thursday, Tacoma Public Schools board approved beginning negotiations to sell Gault Middle School to Chaffey Building Group, a development firm from Kirkland. Chaffey was chosen from three proposals to purchase and redevelop the property. The proposals were required to include reuse of the original structure.

Chaffey plans to create an urban infill project centered on the adaptive reuse and restoration of the historic Gault building. The project will include 195 to 230 workforce and mixed-market-rate units, with more than 50 of those units in the original 1926 structure, 80 to 100 units in an additional mid-rise apartment complex, and 65 to 80 for-sale townhomes with enclosed garages. The developer also proposed an urban village to include coffee shops, a small gym, a restaurant, a bar and possibly a small grocer. There will be a public green space for community gatherings, according to the proposal. The developers also plan to list the property on the National Register of Historic Places and the Tacoma Historic Register.

Chaffey Building Group’s proposal was recommended to the board because of the developer’s qualifications, plan feasibility and community utility. The proposal was voted the most favorable during the public comment period.

Chaffey’s proposal received approval from many people who spoke during a public hearing at the Tacoma Public Schools board meeting.

Anna Lieck lives across the street from Gault Middle School.

“Over the past few years, the bizarre activity surrounding the school and the condition of the building itself has become an unwanted example of neglect in our neighborhood,” she said. “The building deserves to be preserved, and the neighborhood deserves to benefit from those changes.”

Lieck said Chaffey has provided well thought-out responses to the neighbors’ concerns, like parking.

Tacoma deputy mayor Catherine Ushka, who lives in and represents the neighborhood, said the property has been a challenge for everyone who lives around it for at least a decade.

“I have stayed up more at night over this issue than any other issue, just as a resident over the last 20 years,” Ushka said. “I’m looking forward to how we move this forward.”

Ushka said she will work to ensure the project gets over the finish line to provide “a tremendous asset for the community.”

Lynette Scheidt, Eastside Neighborhood Council president, said the neighborhood deserves more than it has put up with over the years, like criminal activity. Scheidt believes the Eastside neighborhood will prosper with the development.

Lucas Nolta, a neighbor of Gault, said the property gradually has deteriorated and “become the general public nuisance that it is today” that has prevented the peace and quiet residents deserve in their own homes.

“I’m eager to see any effort that will simply remediate this public nuisance,” Nolta said.

Evan Smith, Pierce County Health Department’s policy & government relations coordinator, said during the public hearing that the McKinley Hill neighborhood’s rate of poverty is twice as much as in the city, and according to University of California, Berkeley’s Urban Displacement Project, it determined the neighborhood has one of the highest eviction rates in the country.

“This is a unique opportunity to dedicate surplus public land to help those who are most impacted by housing instability in our neighborhood,” Smith said.

Kelly Lawrence, the CEO and president of Chaffey Building Group, said the business is locally connected, civically minded and financially capable to take on the redevelopment.

“We know that you all have been trying to find a partner dedicated to serving our community, and we are confident in our proposal to provide critical housing and amenities in a historically under-served neighborhood and rehab and restore the school back to being an asset for the surrounding community,” Lawrence said.

Board director Chelsea McElroy, Position 4, said as a child, she and her mother provided dinner for families at Gault Middle School through the Family in School Together program, and some of her family members graduated from the school. Her family was sad to see it close, she said.

McElroy said she appreciated the grocery concept in the development plan since the neighborhood has been a food desert for decades.

“That really touched me as a kid serving dinner to other kids and now knowing that there’s going to be access to food in the Eastside that’s available for neighbors, people can walk there,” she said. “(It) will really change a lot of lives.”

In the next month, the TPS will negotiate with the developer on a purchase-and-sale agreement, and the board will give final approval of the agreement at its August meeting.

Allen Siegler contributed to this report.