Tacoma's prize firm looks at other cities

Global financial adviser Russell Investments, downtown Tacoma's largest private employer, will decide this year where to put a new headquarters for 1,100 current employees and more future ones.

The corporate complex could someday total 1.2 million square feet, comparable in scale to Amazon.com's plans for South Lake Union. But the City of Destiny isn't the only potential destination.

So Tacoma officials and business leaders are hustling to ensure this plum doesn't slip through their hands and land elsewhere along Interstate 5.

"What the Boeing 787 meant to Washington state, Russell means to Tacoma," says Bruce Kendall, president of the Tacoma-Pierce County Economic Development Board. The public-private effort galvanized by Russell's potential move is known as Project Destiny.

Officials avoid talk of what losing Russell would mean, but Tacoma News Tribune business columnist Dan Voelpel wrote recently that the company's decision will determine "whether [Tacoma] tips forward into greater prosperity or back into disappointment."

Rival offers are sure to pour in. "We're definitely mobilized to respond to the potential opportunity," says Federal Way director of economic development Patrick Doherty, who is working with property owners in his city on proposals to Russell.

"One of the things that we might offer is a greater proximity to the airport. They're always going to London or Sydney or other offices that they have, so that will be part of our pitch."

Russell, owned by Milwaukee-based Northwestern Mutual, advises pension funds on hiring money managers, runs mutual funds, and produces stock indexes such as the Russell 2000.

From a Tacoma trading floor with 150 people, the company last year conducted $1 trillion worth of trades for its mutual funds and other clients. It has another 1,000 employees in 20 offices from Tokyo to Johannesburg.

How many globe-spanning businesses are headquartered in Tacoma? "It's not a long list of companies," Kendall says diplomatically.

Beyond the cachet, there's the cash. Russell is "by far the best in Tacoma in terms of compensation" among large employers, he says. "These are the kinds of jobs you want ... they are our magnet in that regard." Employees and the company directly spend an estimated $77 million a year in the city.

Russell's lease on its 12-story headquarters expires in 2013. Counting three other buildings, it occupies a total of 400,000 square feet in Tacoma.

Company spokeswoman Jennifer Tice says options include expanding around the 909 A Street headquarters, finding another Tacoma location or building "somewhere else in the Puget Sound region." She'll say little else except that Russell expects to decide this year so work can begin.

People close to the effort say Russell won't consider anything past the city of SeaTac. The Tacoma rumor mill says Russell CEO Craig Ueland has ruled out Seattle or Bellevue.

That would make sense, since 87 percent of the company's employees live no farther north than Federal Way, according to Project Destiny.

It's been 37 years since Weyerhaeuser pulled up its Tacoma roots and moved to a corporate campus in Federal Way. Tacoma officials are determined not to let that happen again. Says Mayor Bill Baarsma: "If there is a checklist of things that will be detrimental to staying in Tacoma, we have a big eraser to erase those checkmarks."

Russell execs haven't detailed their needs, Kendall says. Neither have they launched a formal bidding process, the way Boeing did for the 787 final assembly plant.

But he's operating on the premise that Russell needs "property that's flexible enough that they can grow into 1.2 million square feet" of buildings, with easy freeway access, good transit options and multiple providers of reliable broadband access.

The most frequently mentioned Tacoma site is a large block mostly owned by German billionaire Erivan Haub. Kendall says local officials are "working very closely" with his representatives to ensure a piece of that tract now owned by the U.S. Postal Service is sold to Haub as expected.

Project Destiny may also seek action in Olympia. Downtown Tacoma was designated a federal empowerment zone, and Kendall says the group is exploring what state tax advantages could flow from keeping Russell in that zone. He says other efforts aren't ready for public disclosure yet.

Baarsma calls it "a full-court press."

The competition may be quieter than the one for Boeing's Dreamliner, but it's likely to be just as vigorous.

"We have a better shot at the starting gate than anybody else," Kendall says, "but we're not going to get a hometown discount."

UW name

will go atop tower

Call it truth in labeling. Or high-profile advertising.

Fifteen months after buying the University District's landmark Safeco Tower, the University of Washington has filed an application with Seattle planners to put its own name atop the 22-story building.

The "Safeco" lettering carved into the upper facades on the tower's east and west sides will be covered signs of similar size spelling out "University of Washington."

The north and south sides, now unadorned, will each sport a "W" that is 17 feet tall.

The UW bought the 35-year-old tower and several surrounding properties from Safeco for $130 million in 2006 after the insurance company decided to move its headquarters downtown. Safeco continued to lease the building through the end of 2007.

UW Assistant Vice President Theresa Doherty says the first university employees should move into the tower late next month. The signs should be up by the end of April.

Illumination? Doherty says the signs will be "tastefully backlit." Sorry — no lasers or exploding scoreboards.

— Eric Pryne

rgrunbaum@seattletimes.com or 206-464-8541