I attended the CREW (Commercial Real Estate Women) meeting in Tacoma, WA this past week. A great luncheon event at the Hotel Murano in downtown Tacoma.

Oregon-based McMenamins is bringing their unique business model of restoring historic buildings in the Pacific Northwest like the 100 year old Elks Hall in old downtown Tacoma into a brewery, 45 guestrooms, a space for live music, three restaurants, and a ballroom.

The historic Elks Temple, downtown Tacoma WA. Soon to be the next McMenamins.

George Signorie, Senior Associate at Ankrom Moisan Architects in Portland gave a great (and quite funny) presentation about the makeover. George has been working with the McMenamins for about 10 years now helping them to breath new life into mostly dormant urban neighborhoods  through renovation and re-imaging landmarks.

Tacoma, the City of Destiny since 1873 when it became the Northern Pacific Railroad’s western terminus, has had its share boom and bust and ups and downs. Just before our recent “great recession” downtown Tacoma was realizing a renaissance. Yet the financial crash and its adverse affect on real estate in the South Sound it totally stalled.

With a little assistance of my friend Janet Matzke, giving us a little perspective as to the size of this amazing building, the old Elks Temple, downtown Tacoma WA.

McMenamins interest in choosing downtown Tacoma as a redevelopment site is not only welcome but an encouraging sign of a long awaited recovery and enhances the value and faith in a wonderful community like Tacoma.

As one who travels throughout the Northwest, I’ve enjoyed many of McMenamins locations in Portland, Roseburg, and Vancouver. One of my favorite events a few years ago was a Tech Fair held at the Kennedy School McMenamins in East Portland where I gave a talk on social media marketing.

Fellow coworker and dear friend for many years, Janet Matzke and I share an arts background. We've shared many a smile about 'it's all a matter of perspective.'

The Elks Temple was designed in the second Renaissance Revival style by Edward Frere Champney, a graduate of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts who made his reputation designing many of the buildings for the Seattle 1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition. It was built in 1915-16. It’s been vacant for around 40 years now and needs a lot of TLC, but remains structurally in pretty decent shape.  

 

"Where there's conversation, there's opportunity."

Please Note - The views expressed herein reflect only the individual’s personal views
and are not the views of the author’s employer.

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René Fabre

René Fabre
cell: 425-749-9296
rfabre@firstam.com

 First American Title

First American Title
24722 104th Ave SE
Suite 100
Kent, WA 98030

  
 
Posted by René Fabre on 05/18/2013 04:48 PM   Comments (9)   ActiveRain Community in the ActiveRain Channel   mcmenamins, elks lodge, elks temple  
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René Fabre

Seattle, WA

More about me…

First American Title

Address: 24722 104th Ave SE, Suite 100, Kent, WA, 98030

Office Phone: (253) 850-5230

Cell Phone: (425) 749-9296

Email Me

René Fabre is a blogger, teacher, artist, and speaker living in the Pacific Northwest. His passion is the evolving social media environment and how it impacts every level of our lives.

A certified clock hour instructor, René teaches new media marketing for the First American Title Real Estate School of Washington.

He also teaches social media for entrepreneurs and small business in the continuing education department at Bellevue College.

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