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Eight years and counting

It was over eight years ago, back in May 2008, that we first started feasibility work on Troy Alstead's social hub center in the South Puget Sound area in Gig Harbor, Washington. Troy, formerly chief operating officer of Starbucks, left the company this March after 23 years to become an entrepreneur with this project.

The center will be a freestanding 57,000-square-food building currently called Building E (The project's trade name is still under development) to be constructed in the new Olympic Towne Center shopping center.

So why has it taken eight years to date? The first delay was the Great Recession, which caused the shopping center's anchor tenant to pull out. A new anchor tenant was obtained in 2012. At the same time, revised zoning approvals were started for the shopping center. The zoning approvals required the full exterior design of all the buildings in the shopping center plus very detailed site engineering and landscaping details. To make a long story short, after many zoning hearings and after some citizens appealed the zoning final approval, site work began on the shopping center in December 2015. And finally, on July 19, ground was broken for the footings and foundations of Building E.

We've designed Building E to be a LEED-certified building with a Certified Green Restaurant. In the spring, Building E's geothermal well drilling started. There will be 72 wells, each 265 feet deep. That's 3.6 miles of geothermal wells. The geothermal system will supply both air conditioning and heat and also heat the floors of the patio and deck.

A geothermal heat pump or ground source heat pump (GSHP) is a central heating and cooling system that transfers heat to or from the ground. It uses the earth as a heat source (in the winter) or a heat sink (in the summer). It works on the same principle as a home HVAC heat pump system and saves on the use of energy (electricity and gas) that would normally be used to generate cooling and heating. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has called geothermal heat pumps the most energy-efficient, environmentally clean, and cost-effective space conditioning systems available. A geothermal heat pump system has a higher initial cost that a typical HVAC system, but the additional investment, after deducting Federal tax credits and considering long-term maintenance savings, has a significant payback considering other alternate investments.

Troy intends Building E to be have both “profit and purpose” along with his nonprofit foundation, for restoration of the oceans, Puget Sound and its local waterways.

Building E is scheduled to open to the public on August 28, 2017.

We'll have more information about this paradigm-shifting project we have designed and are producing in future eNewsletters.

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