This just in from two of Tacoma’s creative advocates: Tacoma Makes plans a second deck of Tacoma playing cards, to be released this fall.

The first deck, which we’ll now call the blue deck, was produced last year with the help of a Kickstarter and did so well the Tacoma Makes organizers are ordering a second printing.

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Perhaps, dear readers, we might learn a few more details about the McMenamins’ plans for the Tacoma Elks Temple after a luncheon in two weeks.

Commercial Real Estate Women Seattle & Sound are hosting a lunch panel May 14 at the Hotel Murano, 1320 Broadway, that promises “more exciting details” about the construction.

The group’s news release says construction is scheduled to begin later this year, though a time frame for that has been squishy for awhile. Representatives of the Portland-based brewpub picked up construction permits from the City of Tacoma in February, but work hasn’t begun yet. The …

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The new Tacoma store for Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics plans to open next week, store representatives told me today.

As we reported in early February, Lush is one of four new stores coming to the mall so far this year. The others are Michael Kors, Charlotte Russe and Maurices.

In an email exchange, company representatives wouldn’t provide a specific opening date but said the store would be open by next weekend.

The Tacoma Lush store will be about 1,300 square feet across from the Apple store. It’s the fourth Lush in the state.

The company has 175 stores in the …

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Missouri-based Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World will open its first store in the region next summer, according to a news release this morning.

It will be off Interestate 5 and South 72nd Street.

Here’s the text of the full release:

Springfield, Missouri– (April 25, 2013) Bass Pro Shops, America’s most popular outdoor store, will locate its very first store in the Pacific Northwest in Tacoma, Washington at the highly visible intersection of I-5 and 72nd Street—a main north/south corridor through the Seattle area and Gateway to Mount Rainier.  The new 170,000 square-foot Bass Pro Shops® Outdoor World, which

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Goodwill will open a new Tacoma outlet on May 2, according to a release last week.

The 12,000-square-foot store, at 3120 S. Pine St. in Nalley Valley, is the newest of 31 Goodwill outlets in the region managed from the central Tacoma office.

The Pine Street outlet will replace a store on South 27th Street in Tacoma, according to the release.

“The new outlet location will be more customer-friendly because it is centrally located, provides additional parking and increases the selection of goods available,” said Mark Holcomb, senior vice president of business services at Goodwill. “By eliminating the distance between …

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For the past few months, on the second Saturday of each month, a new type of market has made its home at the north end of the downtown post office building, on the corner of South 9th and A streets.

Called “2nd Saturdayz,” the market is new to Tacoma after operating in Seattle for three years. It bills itself

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Five years after development went into limbo, developers are returning to Tacoma’s Thea Foss Waterway.

Now a development alliance calling itself the Henry Group is proposing to build a $31.2 million apartment and retail project just north of the Highway 509 bridge across the waterway.

The group is the same one that 10 years ago built the waterway’s first major residential building, Thea’s Landing.

The new proposal, tentatively approved Wednesday night by the Thea Foss Waterway Development Authority, would create a six-story, 161-apartment building on Dock Street next to Albers Mill.

The authority authorized its director, Su Dowie, to negotiate …

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Union workers at Macy’s Tacoma Mall store have overwhelmingly ratified a new three-year labor  contract.

Those nearly 300 members of Local 367 of United Food and Commercial Workers approved the tentative deal by a 96% margin.  The new agreement will govern working conditions and pay through 2016 at the store.

The agreement includes the elimination of the two-tier wage structure, gives annual wage increases, recognition of years of service for on-call associates in hours selection, and other positive changes, the  union said