Commercial Locksmith in Tacoma, WA

Doors in Tacoma's warehouse district

The Union Depot-Warehouse district lines Pacific Avenue from South 17th to South 23rd Street and runs uphill to Jefferson Avenue. Its early-1900s brick warehouses stand beside Union Station, dating from 1911, and the University of Washington Tacoma campus occupies reused warehouses there. A building that began as a warehouse may now hold storefronts, offices and homes, so one commercial job can involve several kinds of door:

• storefront doors on the street, which the district's design guidelines call a major character-defining feature
• suite and office doors inside
• rear and service doors
• residential entries that share the building with businesses

Exterior changes and approvals

The district's design guidelines say exterior alterations to contributing properties need Landmarks Preservation Commission approval before development permits are issued. Rekeying a cylinder or repairing a closer keeps the existing hardware in place. A new storefront door or new hardware on the facade is the kind of change to raise with the City first, and with the building owner, who may control the exterior doors in a multi-tenant building. This is general information, not legal advice.

Turnover and key control

Each time a tenant or employee leaves, the question is the same: who still holds a key?

• Rekey the cylinders a departing tenant or employee could open, rather than replacing sound locks; see lock rekeying.
• A master key system lets an owner or manager open every suite while each tenant's key opens only its own.
• Restricted keyways, whose blanks are controlled, make unauthorized copies harder.
• Keep a written key log and collect keys when someone leaves.

What to include in a request

• the building address and suite, and which door: storefront, office, rear or residential entry
• who controls the exterior doors: the owner, a property manager or the tenant
• how many doors and keys are involved, and who should hold them afterward
• whether the building is a contributing property in the district, if you know

Washington Locksmith Pros takes service requests from homes, businesses and drivers in Tacoma. A door that has failed and left a business unsecured is covered on the emergency locksmith page. See also commercial locksmith and the Tacoma page.