(Image: Seattle Convention Center)
Seattle’s $2 billion convention center expansion that has reshaped one of the key connections between Capitol Hill and downtown Seattle will host its first event in January. The expansion debuts in an uncertain era for the convention industry and work-related travel.
The developers of the project have announced a January 25th grand opening of the Seattle Convention Center’s new Summit expansion that adds just under 600,000 square feet of space in the new multistory building that has been under construction along Pine since 2018. The nearly double convention capacity arrives as recent years of pandemic restrictions and societal changes have reshaped how people work and travel.
“More than a decade ago, the Center’s board of directors determined that the economic impact benefiting the state of Washington could be substantially increased by the addition of a second SCC facility,” the press release on the grand opening reads. “This is highlighted by the fact that between 2012 and 2015, the Center turned away over 300 potential events due to the unavailability of space in the Arch Building on the dates desired.”
The original building debuted in June, 1988, by the way.
The announcement from officials and developer the Pine Street Group also contains a whiff of an idle threat alluding to the decision for the convention center board to choose to expand downtown — and not in Bellevue. “Congratulations are in order to the board for having the vision to build two stacked buildings in downtown Seattle,” Frank Finneran, chair of the SCC board of directors, said in the announcement. “This project was more complex and difficult than building in the suburbs, but the vision has now become a reality.”
For the nearby neighborhoods and the residents and workers who pass by and through it every day, the new Summit and original Arch building now make up a 1.5 million-square-foot campus across Pike and Pine and a new shape for the gateway to downtown. The developers say the new addition makes the facility the nation’s “first high-rise convention center.”
Beyond the LMN Architects design of the structure and a new 14,000-square-foot outdoor terrace, passersby will also find new art displays and businesses on the edges of the expansion including a massive 6,000-square-foot Bombo pizza restaurant concept from prolific Seattle restaurateur and future chicken sandwich ruler of the universe Ethan Stowell. In total, the project includes about 20,000 square feet of new commercial and restaurant space.
The main lobby also features a “a striking wooden chandelier designed” by artist Cathy McClure, “the shadows from which are projected onto the floor and recall a sun-dappled forest,” part of the convention center’s $6.5 million public art initiative “that is continually sourcing works from diverse, local creators.”
Meanwhile, beyond the quasi-public expanded convention center property, the expansion will also bring new changes to nearby streets. As part of the expansion, the convention center developers agreed to $93 million in community improvements that included “substantial funding” for affordable housing, parks and open spaces, improvements to Pike/Pine between downtown, and new bike lanes to Capitol Hill. Much of that work is slated to begin in early 2023.
That package was part of the deal struck for the expansion’s land formerly home to King County Metro Convention Place Station, roughly bounded by Pine and Howell streets and 9th and Boren. The new expansion included the addition of more than 500 new underground parking spaces,
Along the way, the massive project’s cost nearly doubled and its sources of funding wavered. The majority of the project’s budget was planned to be funded from bond sales supported by a tax on hotel rooms. In spring of 2021, a financial crisis around the expansion was narrowly averted when the Pine Street Group developers announced a deal for the sale of $342 million in 10-year bonds with an interest yield of 2.801%. The group had been asking the City of Seattle, King County, and the state to help patch a $300 million financing hole to keep construction moving forward. The move further leveraged the project and will make a successful calendar of new hosted events imperative. Pine Street Group said last year the “roll out of COVID-19 vaccines and significant stimulus support from the Federal government” it believed would stabilize the industry. “Both of those factors will shorten the time for recovery in the hospitality industry, the key source of repayment for those bonds,” Matt Griffin, managing partner with the Pine Street Group, said at the time.
Now the expansion is ready for its first visitors and Pine Street and the convention center board can start to see if their math works out and the bet on this chunk of downtown Seattle will pay off.
There are smaller signs it might be slow to pay off. Earlier this year, CHS reported on the surprising plan for PEG Companies, a Provo, Utah-based “vertically integrated real estate development and investment firm known for its unique approach to creating value,” to acquire and redevelop the Homewood Suites by Hilton building on Pike near the Seattle Convention Center. PEG isn’t betting on Griffin’s vision for recovery. It plans to convert the hotel rooms to apartments.
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Step one would be to find something to do with it that enhances downtown when it’s empty of conventions,
When can the unhoused families begin moving in?
Sounds like there’s a huge underground parking lot that could be used for temporary shelter in the freezing weather…
The parking garage isn’t underground. It’s mostly at street level and thinly veiled by shallow lobby spaces. The slope of the site makes some of it underground.
The big exhibition hall is what is definitely underground.
It’s going to be difficult and expensive to convert that building to residential, but yes, they might as well get started now. There’s no other conceivable use for it.
oh please…”unhoused families” are a tiny sliver of the homeless population and are top priority, easiest to help since they aren’t generally strung out on meth and fentynal. take a look at the street campers and show me the “families”.
Exactly. This gaslighting around who lives in tents on Seattle streets and why has been going on for 15 years. It has contributed to the crisis. If we can’t acknowledge the cause (drug addiction), than we will never be able to solve it.
^ This!!! I love how every construction site in town is looked at as some sort of Paleolithic shelter. Please step away from the bong!
Ah, the trust your eyes, flat earther approach the data analysis. Alive and well even in “evidence based policy” haven Seattle
Statistically, you won’t accept whatever I tell you, but also statistically not debunking dumb shit like this solidifies prejudice in people who see others express these myths, so a quick reminder that the majority of homeless in Seattle are young working people who are not addicts, followed by a revolving door of transiently homeless families that has insecure housing to start with.
The most visible unhoused living on the street full time with severe addiction and mental health needs (tho I repeat myself) make up a very small percentage of the total unhoused, we’re talking single digit percent. And the vast majority of this group started out in one of the first two but never got help and ended up chronically homeless due to the stress and hopelessness. They’re presence is proof of past policy failure and the callousness they are treated with is a contribution to the very failure that helped lead us here
Please provide data/proof for your claim about the nature of the homeless population. The majority are “young working people”? That is just laughable.
Jase, nah, you’re full of it. The majority is DEFINITELY NOT young working people and families. Mental illness is a huge contributor for sure but many of the mentally I’ll are also using hard drugs – meth in particular can severely exacerbate mental illness or even cause it.
Regardless, your narrative makes you feel better I guess but it’s simply not true. The city itself (under gross Ed Murray, I think?) said about 80% had substance abuse issues.
That’s nonsense. It’s drug addiction and mental illness. Until we make it mandatory that these people are admitted to a rehab program it is never going to get better. This out patient treatment is nonsense. If I were that addicted I wouldn’t give a shit. If I was the addicted I would most likely be happy later that they made it mandatory. Stop hiding behind high rent alone. I agree the high cost of living is out of control but let’s get real most of the problem with homeless is drugs and mental illness and no mandatory treatment because we might offend someone’s feelings. Bull shit I am afraid to walk down the street.
Imagine if we had spent that $2B on projects designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions instead of a building that’s very use requires people to travel to Seattle in ways that increase our overall greenhouse gas emissions.
There is a serious risk that this convention center will be one big “white elephant.” (and a total waste of money).