Tacoma Public Schools has officially bought a two-building industrial complex on South Orchard Street for roughly $12.1 million, a price tag district leaders say will finally deliver something they have long wanted: one central kitchen to prepare meals for every school. The site is expected to pull together warehouse, maintenance and meal-production work that is currently spread across multiple locations.
According to the Puget Sound Business Journal, the district paid about $12.1 million for the complex and is planning renovations that include a roughly 30,000-square-foot production kitchen within the approximately 86,000-square-foot footprint. The purchase was recorded Feb. 17 and is being funded with proceeds from the district’s 2024 capital bond. District officials say one building will be focused on food production, while the other will be reserved for shops and storage.
The school board adopted a resolution in October authorizing the purchase, and district paperwork lists the seller as Broadstone Cable LLC and the proposed purchase price as $12,000,094, according to BoardOnTrack. The documents describe the property as about six acres of paved warehouse space that staff say can handle kitchen and operations needs while cutting down on duplication across existing facilities.
District goals and timeline
The project page from Tacoma Public Schools says the new central kitchen is meant to reduce reliance on prepackaged meals, expand scratch cooking and increase the district’s use of local suppliers. The anticipated opening is fall 2027. The district notes that funding comes from the 2024 capital bond, and planning records from the City of Tacoma show a pre-application for a “Central Kitchen & Maintenance Facilities” project at the Orchard Street site is already active.
What this could mean for meals and jobs
District materials and reporting note that Tacoma has been preparing meals across dozens of locations, a setup officials say drives up costs and limits how much fresh cooking can realistically happen, according to the Puget Sound Business Journal. Supporters of the project say a central production kitchen could create new district kitchen jobs and help schools move toward fresher, more locally sourced menus…