Tacoma has turned down commercial tenants in its reviving downtown for lack of office space, but no one will build more until the non-existent space is leased.
By contrast, Seattle reportedly has about 550,000 square feet of office space under construction and Bellevue has more than 1.9 million square feet under construction. Tacoma? Aside from two smallish buildings - zero. The reason, according to a local leasing agent: "Tacoma is not Bellevue. Although were just 35 miles down the road, its completely different demographics. As different as Tacoma is from Centralia."