Tacoma committee reviews plan to support jobs as downtown office market softens

The Tacoma City Council Economic Development Committee met April 29, 2025, to review Objective 6 of the city's draft economic development strategic plan, a section focused on supporting employment-generating activities and maintaining office and industrial inventory. Presenters from the Community and Economic Development Department outlined recent accomplishments, market trends and next steps for aligning the plan with University of Washington Tacoma (UWT) priorities and a new Tideflats subarea plan.

Committee members were told the University of Washington Tacoma has a revised campus master plan that prioritizes expanding enrollment rather than the campus footprint and aims toward a 10,000-student target, including roughly 500 units of on-campus housing. Debbie Bingham of the Community and Economic Development Department said, "the new chancellor is really about expanding the camp not the size of the footprint of campus, but the student body of the campus, kind of getting to that 10,000 student goal that they've been aiming for, as well as adding student housing." Bingham also noted recent campus construction, including Milgard Hall's use of mass timber.

Paul Baker, also with Community and Economic Development, described work to maintain a property inventory and other tactics to…