Mecca Theater
755 Broadway,
Tacoma,
WA
98402
755 Broadway,
Tacoma,
WA
98402
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This former adult theater closed in Summer 2006 and was scheduled for demolition. However it was converted into condominium housing.
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Article about the closing:
“Mecca’s sale will close tawdry chapter in Tacoma’s history
DAN VOELPEL; THE NEWS TRIBUNE
April 21st, 2006
If you want to catch the end of downtown Tacoma’s long history as a pornography supermarket,
Jerry Holt has two words for you.
“Better hurry.â€
Holt plans to close his Mecca Theater â€" downtown’s last adult movie house, pornographic bookstore
and sex merchandise shop â€" before the end of July.
A victim of the Internet? Moralist intervention? Law enforcement investigation? New government
zoning regulations?
No, no, no, no. Holt survived all those attacks in his 30 years in Tacoma.
Then why?
“I’m getting up in age,†Holt said this week. The tinge in his voice sounded like a cross between
wistfulness, resignation and humor.
But age isn’t the whole story behind Holt’s decision.
Eighteen months ago, Holt wanted to relocate his peep show palace to one of the three isolated
zones the City Council set aside in 2002 for adult entertainment businesses. But only if he could
keep the full-length doors on the 25 one-person peep show booths â€" a privacy accouterment
grandfathered in at the Mecca but outlawed at new establishments.
The city certainly wanted the Mecca out of downtown but wouldn’t let Holt take his doors.
(Half-doors allow cops to more easily monitor patrons’ behavior during inspections.)
So, Holt said in September 2004, “I’m just going to sit here until the right opportunity arises
and do what we do. I’m getting old, but I’m still making a living.â€
When Holt spoke those words, the building that houses the Mecca â€" the Bonnell Building, circa
1908 â€" had an assessed value of a meager $232,000. Pierce County assessed it this year at
$1,139,000. Holt’s wife, Tacoma attorney Corinne Dixon, owns the building, according to county
tax records.
Last week, “the right opportunity†arose. Real estate agent Carole Holder of Sound N’ Shore
Properties called with a simple question, “Are you interested in selling?â€
“Oh, why not?†Holt said.
Later that day, developer David Gintz of The Gintz Group toured the building. Within an hour came
an acceptable offer. Neither party would disclose the purchase price.
The Gintz Group plans to convert the upper two floors into either a hotel or apartments, Holder
said. The Bonnell Building once housed the Stothart Hotel. And the upper two floors remain nearly
undisturbed since the hotel’s closure decades ago.
Another concept under discussion, Holder said, involves a dinner-and-a-movie commercial venture
that makes use of the theater space on the Broadway level.
But you won’t see XXX movies with your shrimp cocktail.
The Mecca gained a bit of tawdry notoriety â€" before Holt owned it â€" in March 1974. Municipal
Court Judge Erling Tollefson and four police officers showed up for opening night of a film
called “Deep Throat.â€
They watched for 35 minutes before Tollefson signed a warrant stating the film did not meet the
standards of the community and empowered officers to seize the film. The judge didn’t watch the
second half of the double feature, “The Devil and Miss Jones.†But he authorized the cops to
seize it, too.
Holt moved to the Mecca in 1986 when his adult bookstore had to relocate from its Pacific Avenue
location because city officials decided to tear down a block of old buildings in the name of
urban renewal â€" and get rid of seedy adult businesses.
Holt said he also intends to sell his Lakewood operation, Jerry’s Adult Book Stores, by next
year, though he predicts new owners will continue its operation.
In downtown Tacoma, however, the Mecca’s closure will mark the end of a steamy era. I’ll bet most
of you don’t mind one bit".
Article about the future plans for this building:
“At the Mecca Theater, a porn house is reborn.
Source: News Tribune (Tacoma, WA)
Byline: Dan Voelpel 02/07/2007
Feb. 7—That bumping and grinding you hear coming from the old Mecca Theater this week has
nothing to do with reviving the downtown Tacoma porn house’s tawdry past.
It has everything to do with selective demolition.
By this summer, you can live in one of 12 condominiums on the upper two floors where the Stothart
Hotel welcomed guests for five decades until it closed in the early 1960s.
Or you can buy new office spaces fronting Commerce Street.
By next winter, you can dine on gourmet pizza and spirits at The Broadway Speakeasy while
watching second-run movies on a theater screen.
Or you can relax with a drink in a new mezzanine bar with low light and low ceilings called The
Mecca Lounge. The decor will pay homage to history with vintage backlit signs “Mecca” and “Adult
Theater" and two narrow doors salvaged from the peep-show booths.
“I know over at City Hall they would like us to lose the name ‘Mecca’ completely. But it is part
of the building’s past,“ said Ron Gintz, former mayor of Federal Way and chief operating officer
of The Gintz Group. The family-owned development company bought the 1908 building in August for
$2.04 million.
Keeping references to the past won’t change an enduring fact: The Gintz Group’s reformation
project drives another dagger into the seedy underbelly of Tacoma’s past and simultaneously
exposes Theater District patrons to another apropos attraction.
Pat Nagle, co-founder and managing partner of Harmon Brewery and Restaurant, will oversee the
creation of The Broadway Speakeasy.
“We wanted to conjure up doing an art deco theme in the Roaring ‘20s when everything was happy
and moving pictures were coming into play,“ Nagle said. "Not swanky but upscale, nice, high
energy. Much more of a lounge than a restaurant."
The inspiration for the film-watching-while-eating concept, Nagle said, came from the
Portland-based chain of McMenamins establishments. Guests can choose to have their food and
drinks delivered into the 90-seat theater with two shows a night, or dine outside the theater.
Nagle pulls double duty as the listing agent — with Sound ‘N Shore Properties partner Carole
Holder — for sales of the building’s residential and office condominium spaces.
“There’s lots of character in that building,” Nagle said. “Being in the Theater District, next to
a future four-star (Winthrop) hotel, on Broadway, right off the Link light-rail stop. We’re
trying to be a partner and neighbor and fit into the whole Theater District concept."
Rather than gut the interior and construct new spaces, the partners have hired Tacoma architect
Jim Merritt of Merritt Arch to incorporate much of the existing space, especially in the hotel
floors, and reuse some of the original vertical-grain fir millwork.
Merritt might find a way to incorporate old newspapers found lining shelves and used as padding
under carpets. One page from the Feb. 14, 1938, Tacoma Times features a banner headline that
reads, “Roosevelt’s Popularity Trend Slightly Down, Institute Finds.”
Some old furnishings, however, must go — no matter how historic.
“‘Custody of the eyes,’ I believe, is an important principle,” Gintz said. “But when we were
looking at buying (the Mecca), we did a walk-through. We came around this corridor and into the
theater from the screen side. I did glance back at the screen. It was awful. When I looked away,
the light played off the faces of these old men sitting in the back; it was really sad. We’ve
decided not to use those seats."
At least one noteworthy rump sat in one of those seats.
In March 1974, Tacoma Municipal Court Judge Erling Tollefson and four police officers showed up
for opening night of a film called “Deep Throat.”
A newspaper account notes the investigators watched for 35 minutes — seeing more than half of
the 61-minute film — before Tollefson signed a warrant declaring that the film did not meet the
moral standards of the community and empowering officers to seize it. The judge didn’t watch the
second half of the double feature, “The Devil in Miss Jones.” Yet he authorized the cops to seize
it, too, presumably on the principle that the same guy wrote and directed both films.
The future theater at The Broadway Speakeasy won’t reprise either of those films.
“There will be a lot of fun play there,” Gintz quipped, “but no foreplay”.
This website has some photos of the Mecca Theater.
The Mecca has been converted to condos. Here is their website:
http://www.meccacondos.com/index.html
The information about this building being converted to condos was included in the article that I posted on Feb 12, 2007 at 2:47pm.
Here is a May 2008 article that discusses the renovation:
http://tinyurl.com/cdaohc