Steve Rodrigues says a list of investors could lead to the MV Kalakala leaving Tacoma's Kylebos Waterway this summer if plans progress. (Photos by Steve Dunkelberger)
Efforts to preserve and present icons of Puget Sound's heritage aren't going as planned. But all is not lost for the perpetually troubled Kalakala, the noticeably vacant and aging Old City Hall and the landmark former Elks Lodge.
The MV Kalakala seemed like it was finally done for when Coast Guard observers saw it listing following our area's recent winter storms. The storm passed, the iconic art deco ferry righted herself and follow-up investigations showed that a nearby oil sheen wasn't being caused by the rusting ferry. While that immediate trouble has passed, the Kalakala has uncharted waters ahead.
A deal to sell the ferry for $1 was announced last month only to fall through when the new buyer failed to come up with an investment package to restore the ferry at a cost of around $50 million. The Kalakala's Facebook page lists that the anonymous potential owner was Leonard Boekelman from Stockton, Cali., who owns Global Seaven Oceanic, LLC, which was confirmed by Steve Rodrigues, who still owns the vessel.
Rodrigues is now working on his own slate of private investors with visions of turning the ferry into a gathering space with overnight suites and displays of the ferry's storied history.
'NO OTHER VESSEL LIKE HER'
The MV Kalakala was built in 1926 under the name Peralta for service on San Francisco Bay. It was then towed to Puget Sound for ferry service in 1935. During World War II, she shuttled 5,000 boat builders from Seattle to Bremerton seven days a week. Her streamlined design made her not only a nautical novelty, but a waterfront landmark while she was in operation. She was second only to the Space Needle in popularity during the 1962 World's Fair in Seattle. The Kalakala, which means "bird" in Chinook jargon, was retired in 1967 and then saw a new career as a fish processing site in Alaska before it was retired for the third time.
"There is no other vessel like her," Rodrigues said. "People just don't know what we have here."
Decades of different owners with dreams to restore her as a floating museum came and went as the "ferry tale story" of the Kalakala saw it being towed from Seattle to Neah Bay to Tacoma, where it has sat for six years.
Current hopes now involve making the ferry sound enough to be towed this summer from its moorage along the Hylebos Waterway commercial shipping lane to less-trafficked waters. Coast Guard and Army Corps of Engineers fear that the Kalakala would threaten business operations on the waterway if it sank and have declared it a hazard to navigation.
One missed opportunity to boost the ferry's restoration effort came and went in January, when the state ferry system retired five ferries, including the Rhododendron, which has a similar hull design and engine parts as the Kalakala, Rodrigues said. He noted that his offer to use the Rhododendron hull for the Kalakala went unanswered. The ferries are now being sold for scrap by the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) because they don't meet current Coast Guard standards. Rather than upgrade them, the state opted to simply replace them with brand new ones.
"They (WSDOT) are a public menace," Rodrigues said. "They retire, sell for scrap and build new."
Rodrigues plans to file a lawsuit to block the scrapping of those ferries in hopes of getting their parts to restore the Kalakala and has submitted a proposal to the state to have it displayed at Pier 48 in Seattle once it is restored.
While the Kalakala's immediate troubles subside, Old City Hall's troubles step up.
OLD CITY HALL
City of Tacoma officials placed a deadline of Feb. 10 for Old City Hall's ownership company, the Stratford Co., to remove loose bricks and repair broken windows at the building or face potential civil files as a derelict building.
The 119-year-old structure, which is on the city's register of historical places, has already undergone some repairs after it was flooded by a burst water pipe in 2010 and a homeless person caused a small fire in the five-story building in December. A laundry list of other repairs and due dates runs through 2012 along with potentially hefty fines of up to $250 a day if the repairs aren't completed on time.
"No one wants to see that happen. It is in the best interest of everyone, the city, the citizens and the owners, to have those basic repairs done," city spokesman Rob McNair-Huff said. "The end goal is to have the building refurbished. This is a community icon."
ELKS LODGE RENOVATIONS
Across the street from Old City Hall, renovation work is on the way at yet another long-neglected Tacoma icon set for a new life.
McMenamins – the famed brewpub and hotel operation that owns the Spar Café in Olympia and landmark hotels around the Pacific Northwest – has begun renovation work at the former Elks Lodge in downtown. The entertainment venue and boutique hotel is set to open in the spring of 2013.
An associated deal between the city and local developers is not going so well.
Rick Moses and Grace Pleasants, operating under the business name of Elks on Broadway, had first brokered McMenamins in 2009 that also included the city buying an adjacent parcel for use as a $10 million parking structure with a $31 million retail, office and hotel operation on its upper floors. Struggles with lining up investors have since scaled back those plans. Original plans that are outlined on the company's website include a 100-room hotel, 69 apartments, commercial spaces and parking for 270 cars. The website, however, has not been updated since April.
Tacoma City Council is set to receive an update about the project in an upcoming study session.
