Tacoma to transfer a city landmark to the feds for $1. Here’s why and what it means

The city of Tacoma is transferring ownership of Union Station and the federal courthouse property to the U.S. government for a grand sum of $1, closing a long chapter in preserving the 111-year-old property.

While the news may come as a surprise to some, the deal has been contractually set for decades as part of the city’s lease agreement with the U.S. government.

According to the city’s July 19 action memo explaining the transfer: “This resolution is the result of a contractual obligation and there will not be any community engagement or customer research.”

It added, “This transfer will allow GSA to continue to maintain the historic building as a federal courthouse.”

The city’s 30-year lease gave the federal government the option to buy the site for a dollar, which in 2002, U.S. General Services Administration confirmed it would execute.

The properties, 1703 and 1717 Pacific Ave., are set to transfer over to the U.S. government when the deal closes in the coming weeks.

“The transaction will close once the transfer deed has been fully executed by all necessary parties and recorded,” Maria Lee, media representative for the city, told The News Tribune on Monday via email. “Typically closings usually occur within one to two months.”

Long road of recovery

As The News Tribune reported covering Union Station’s centennial in 2011, “Its terrazzo tile floors have felt the soles of President Warren G. Harding, mobster Machine Gun Kelly, magician Harry Houdini, baseball great Babe Ruth and jazz artist Ella Fitzgerald, amid legions of rail passengers.”

It added that not all history made at the station had been great.

“During World War II, the depot saw the tears of Japanese Americans and immigrants as they departed for incarceration at assembly centers and internment camps,” the paper reported.

By the 1960s, passenger rail traffic had dwindled considerably.

In 1974, Union Station was listed in the National Register of Historic Places, and in 1980, the seven-block area surrounding Union Station was designated a historic district and also listed in the National Register of Historic Places, according to GSA’s site timeline.

The last passenger train departed from the station in 1984. The site fell into significant disrepair following its glory days as a bustling station.

Chunks of plaster fell from the dome’s interior, and thieves stripped the building of its brass handrails and classic light fixtures.

As the story goes, a News Tribune reader wrote a letter to the editor suggesting that the federal and local governments remodel the depot into a federal courthouse. That letter was forwarded by the newspaper’s publisher to U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks, and many negotiations later, a complex series of agreements made plans a reality.

In the late 1980s, Congress authorized GSA to arrange for a 30-year lease of the building from Tacoma as the city purchased the site from Burlington Northern in 1988 for $1, plus $3.9 million for two adjoining parcels of land.

The City of Tacoma issued bonds to finance the restoration on a guarantee that the federal government would pay rent. The state contributed $3.5 million to stabilize the landmark and refurbish the copper dome.

The hope was to turn the site around and, in turn, spark an economic and development revival in that part of downtown.

Construction commenced in 1990 for restoration and expansion.

“Rent for the facility was calculated at $35.06 per net usable square foot per year which equates to $4,051,568.66 per year,” Lee told The News Tribune. “This rental amount was based on the bond/debt service for the original cost to acquire, construct, and rehabilitate the property.”

It was a slog to get to the finish line, and not without a fair share of drama, including a prediction of cost overruns due to cleanup of pollutants found on site and changes in the design requested by federal judges and GSA. The city also fretted over delays that were costing the city $10,000 a day in getting the courts moved in and upsetting the fiscal balancing act of the bond interest payments.

“A top official for the General Services Administration, which will act as the property manager for the building, initially said the judges wouldn’t move in until the last bit of sawdust was swept up. The official, Bob Eberly, also cited some scratched woodwork,” The News Tribune reported in early September 1992.

Federal courts eventually moved into the renovated and expanded U.S. courthouse that year, and the Washington State History Museum opened in the new building adjacent to U.S. District Courthouse/Union Station in 1996. A permanent campus for University of Washington Tacoma opened across from the site in 1997, and in 2002, the Museum of Glass and the adjoining Chihuly Bridge of Glass opened nearby. A year later, the new home of the Tacoma Art Museum opened at 1701 Pacific Ave.

In 2017, Tacoma-born international glass artist Dale Chihuly and his wife, Leslie, formally donated five large Chihuly artworks inside the historic rotunda to the federal government, to keep on site in perpetuity as part of the National Fine Arts Collection.

What’s next

Christi Chidester Votisek, GSA public affairs officer for the Northwest/Arctic region, told The News Tribune via email in response to questions that unlike the recent GSA sale of federal property in Auburn, Union Station is a keeper.

“GSA has no plans to sell the historic Tacoma Union Station once it has been purchased from the City of Tacoma,” Votisek wrote. “We are thrilled to add the property to the federal real estate portfolio this year and we look forward to maintaining the property as a U.S. courthouse for years to come.”

In contrast, “The federal property in Auburn was identified for sale under the Federal Assets Sale Transfer Act, due to its underutilization. Union Station is fully occupied,” she noted.

Union Station is listed in GSA’s 2023 five-year capital budget request “demonstrating that GSA not only intends to keep the property, but to invest in building and system upgrades,” Votisek added.

Public access remains in place at the site, home to the U.S. District Court, Western District of Washington and U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Western District of Washington.

“The U.S. Marshals Service maintains secure access to the courthouse portion of the property. Members of the public may access the historic rotunda and the lower level concourse during business hours Monday through Friday 7 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.,” Votisek wrote.

Betsy Kruger, general counsel for GSA speaking at the July 17 council meeting, said that the agency “doesn’t have any plans to make any changes to the use of the building. The only thing that I think we will be doing as soon as we’re able to get funding is we’ll be upgrading different systems in the building to bring it up to federal code, because there are some things in the building that are not up to our federal code.

“But as far as use in the surrounding area, I am not aware of any changes,” she added.

GSA is holding a public open house event from 2 to 4 p.m. Aug. 10 in celebration of Union Station joining the federal real estate portfolio.

News Tribune archives contributed to this report.