Community Will Play A Role In Harmon's Future Airport Restaurant

When Harmon Brewing says it wants its future restaurant at the Tacoma Narrows Airport to be a community gathering spot, it isn't paying lip service.

It hopes that, literally, the community will have a role in the future Hub restaurant that it has dubbed "Pie on the Fly."

The restaurant's owners - Pat Nagle and Carole Holder - have teamed with a group called Community Sourced Capital to help raise $20,000 in loan money to cover the remodel and other costs associated with opening the airport site, which is expected to employ 25 people.

Instead of a bank, however, the community will be the lender.

Here's how it works:

Nagle and Holder are selling 400 "squares" for the restaurant at $50 apiece. The squares, technically, are small pieces of the larger, $20,000 loan that's needed for the site's facelift.

Through a website, people can buy them to become "squareholders." CSC says it will aggregate the funds generated through the website into a zero-interest loan for the Hub.

The restaurant will make zero-interest payments - based on a preset percentage of revenue - back to the squareholders over two years.

Another perk? "We will also be holding a pre-opening party for all squareholders and providing pizza and beer on us!" Nagle told Patch.

The Hub isn't the first restaurant to benefit from CSC's community financing.  Earlier this year, it helped generate $3,000 for Playback Sports on North Proctor, which designed a new sports sock featuring Tacoma's skyline.

Harmon Brewing Co. launched its campaign earlier this month and, at last count, filled $13,150 of the $20,000 loan thanks to 112 new squareholders in the Tacoma area.

It expects to meet the $20,000 minimum before the fundraising deadline of June 3. If the community is up for it, Harmon Brewing says it is prepared and capable of taking on a loan up to $40,000 to finance the new Hub location, according to CSC.

So the restaurant has eight days to raise the money needed for the Tacoma Narrows Airport site, which is expected to open after the airport conducts its Wings & Wheels Car Show in July.

Nagle, who lives in Gig Harbor, and Holder, who grew up on the Peninsula, are hoping residents with an appetite for a community gathering spot and local business will come to their aid.

To buy a square or learn more about the Harmon's community lending effort, click here.