Worker dies in reported equipment fall at convention center construction site — UPDATE

(Image: SDOT)

One worker was reported dead after equipment reportedly fell from an upper level of the downtown convention center construction site Monday afternoon.

Seattle Fire was called to the 9th Ave scene just before 2 PM for a “rescue extrication” call at the construction site but a department spokesperson said the person was dead at the scene. According to Seattle Fire radio updates, a lift reportedly fell from the second level of the construction site near 9th and Pine. Continue reading

Pike Pine Renaissance pulls back on transformation of Capitol Hill corridors to downtown

The Pike Pine Renaissance plans wider sidewalks and concrete bike lane barriers on Pine Street over I-5

The Pike Street bridge over I-5 won’t be able to handle expanded sidewalks or concrete bike lane barriers

By Ryan Packer

Seattle’s waterfront remains a heavy construction zone as work progresses on the long-planned multi-lane boulevard and adjoining park, but a piece of the overall Waterfront Seattle project that gets much closer to Capitol Hill hasn’t broken ground yet.

The Pike Pine Renaissance project envisions streetscape changes to Pike and Pine Streets between 1st Avenue and Bellevue Ave, with the one-way street configuration in downtown extended all the way up the hill to Bellevue. Sidewalks in several areas will be expanded. The gaps between the existing protected bike lanes will be filled in, with the bike lane barriers beefed up with more solid and durable materials. That’s the original vision, at least, and the one that was reviewed by the city’s design commission last year when the project reached 30% design on its way to planned construction in fall of 2022.

But in the latest plans obtained from the city at the 60% level of design, a key segment of the project has been scaled back. While the wider sidewalks and concrete barriers for the bike lane are still planned for the I-5 overpass on Pine Street, the overpass on Pike Street is no longer planned as much of a makeover. Instead of concrete, the barricades look to be something like plastic posts only.

Ethan Bergerson of the Seattle Department of Transportation explained the reason for the change. Continue reading

Born on the 4th of July, Freeway Park’s targeted improvements move forward

By Ryan Packer

On Sunday, Freeway Park turned 45 years old. Seattle’s often overlooked lid over I-5, and the first city park anywhere that was constructed over an existing freeway, always seems to be in a race against time. The Brutalist fountain still carries a heavy air of a different era, thanks largely in part to the fact that maintenance hasn’t quite kept up with need. The nooks and crannies these days are only for the most curious. But the latest attempt to give Freeway Park a new sparkle is moving forward.

The improvements are planned after a cash infusion coming from the expansion of the Washington State Convention Center blocks away. Out of the $10 million coming as part of a public benefits package, only $6 million will be available for construction of physical improvements to the park. The rest will mostly go toward “design and project management, permitting, sales tax and contingencies”, with a $750,000 slice set aside for park activation. A master plan of an estimated $23 million in improvements has been narrowed down to fit inside the $6 million budget. Continue reading

CHOP: One year later — Seattle rises up in protest to the killing of George Floyd

Below are images from CHS photographer from the first week of Black Lives Matter protests in Seattle following the police killing of George Floyd (Image: Alex Garland)

Tuesday marks one year since the May 25th, 2020 police killing of George Floyd in Minnesota and the start of Black Lives Matter protests across the country and around the world.

Four days later with broken glass at an Amazon grocery and the neighborhood’s Ferrari dealership, unrest spread across downtown and Seattle as thousands of protesters took to the streets of the city in the midst of pandemic lockdowns.

Here is a look at those early days of Seattle’s Black Lives Matter uprising — days that have been overshadowed by the Capitol Hill occupied protest camp that formed, the abandonment of the East Precinct and its barrier walls, ongoing anti-police protests, and the attempts of Seattle City Hall to adequately respond to the movement with changes to its police department and an election that will bring new leadership to the City Council and the mayor’s office.

Friday, May 29thProtests begin in Seattle after the Floyd killing as thousands march and demonstrate. Windows are smashed at Capitol Hill’s Amazon grocery and Ferrari dealership, and seven arrests are reported.

Saturday, May 30thProtests continue as clashes with police grow downtown bringing flames, tear gas, and gunfire. Mayor Jenny Durkan begins a nightly curfew to try to quiet the unrest.

A protestor enters an intersection blocked by police during Saturday’s demonstrations

A burned SPD SUV was part of the weekend wreckage

Continue reading

Seattle downtown Convention Center expansion developers say won’t need loans from city, county, and state

A model of the Washington State Convention Center expansion (Image: WSCC Addition)

Developers of the downtown Washington State Convention Center expansion will turn to the muni bond market to raise much needed cash to continue construction on the project after a year of economic uncertainty.

The Pine Street Group announced a deal Wednesday for the sale of $342 million in 10-year bonds with an interest yield of 2.801%. PFM Financial Advisors of Seattle managed the bond offering.

The financing plan required state approval.

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 on the $1.9 billion project moving forward.

The Pine Street Group said “roll out of COVID-19 vaccines and significant stimulus support from the Federal government” have led to “changing financing markets” allowing the private deal to move forward. Continue reading

Why this retailer’s path to find a new home on Capitol Hill will take it through downtown’s overhauled Pacific Place

A rendering of the overhauled Pacific Place’s second floor (Image: Pacific Place)

A rendering of Pacific Place’s new four-stories of glass (Image: Pacific Place)

The path for one longtime Capitol Hill independent retailer hoping to weather the choppy waters of Seattle’s reopening after a year of COVID-19 restrictions will take the shop on a journey downtown and into a space where you might not expect to find a boutique focused on the creations of local designers and artists.

Ghost Gallery is leaving 11th Ave’s Chophouse Row and will join an unusual mix of retail being conjured as downtown’s massive Pacific Place mall gears up — again — after a major overhaul that has mostly yet to welcome back the flow of Seattle shoppers its multimillion dollar redesign was undertaken to attract.

“The space is about 1,200 square feet with tall ceilings, dark wood fixtures and a very antique vibe, so we’ll feel right at home,” Ghost owner Laurie Kearney tells CHS. This won’t be your typical “mall vibe” in any way, and Pacific Place has been so amazing with inviting local businesses to come down and create some unique spaces.” Continue reading

Vain rehomes its freak-flagship salon on Capitol Hill

Some recent Vain color (Image: Vain)

A Seattle institution for adventurous and colorful hairstyles, and some truly legendary parties, boutique salon Vain has moved its downtown flagship location to new Capitol Hill digs on 1121 Pike Street. Cozied down between Black Sparrow Tattoo and Club Z, Vain opened for business earlier this month. The move signals the company’s rebirth of sorts from the pandemic, and a new chapter in Seattle’s coiffed counterculture.

Growing in the Belltown building left behind by the move of legendary Seattle club The Vogue to Capitol Hill, Vain was born into the city’s changing punk ethos. Vain owner Victoria Gentry remembered that neighboring businesses didn’t exactly appreciate The Vogue’s noisy shows, but with a salon, “You still get all the freaks without the noise.”

The move to Capitol Hill has been in the works for a while, Gentry said. The former location — in downtown, or Belltown, depending on who you ask — is part of 1st Ave Seattle history, an area now unrecognizable from when Vain first set up shop in the late 1990s, Gentry said.

They already had many clients from Capitol Hill, and the fact that downtown business had significantly slowed during the pandemic all factored into the decision to move. The new location is just on the other side of Boren, still within a mile of the old space for dedicated downtown and Belltown clients.

“I had already been planning on [moving] for quite a while. I had been waiting for the lease to run out to make a move. It got delayed a little bit because of COVID,” Gentry said. “Our connection to the Capitol Hill community has always been really strong. In a way it does feel like [coming home]. I’m excited to reconnect with arts groups and artists.” Continue reading

Seattle forgoes federal homelessness funding in smaller than planned hotel ‘shelter surge’

The Executive Hotel Pacific at 4th and Spring (Image: Executive Hotel Pacific)

As evidence builds that hotel shelters can help and increased funding becomes available to create new shelter opportunities in the city, there is a crisis within a crisis for Seattle’s mission to help the thousands of homeless and underhoused people who live here.

The Seattle Times reports that Mayor Jenny Durkan’s plan to secure apartment units for 24-hour shelter and provide more rental assistance is coming in with fewer spaces and help for fewer people than expected.

The crux, the Times reports, is how the city decides to divide its millions of dollars in potential resources earmarked for the problem as it splits its effort across people who cost less to support and have lower needs around issues like addiction and mental health and people with the most challenging, expensive support needs who are regularly entangled with the city’s law enforcement resources.

Seattle’s “shelter surge” will now launch months late and will not be using as much federal funding as first expected to create the 125 units and provide rental assistance.

The smaller approach is especially frustrating for advocates after revelations Durkan’s office has decided to forgo available FEMA funding. Continue reading

Developer: City of Seattle will consider loan to help patch $300M convention center expansion financing gap

The City of Seattle is exploring providing a loan to help the Washington State Convention Center “overcome a coronavirus-induced financing gap,” the developer of the $1.9 billion project says.

The announcement follows December’s efforts from King County officials to shape a possible $100 million loan to help patch a $300 million financing hole in the “4/5ths” complete project to expand the downtown convention center along Pine between downtown and Capitol Hill.

“The City believes that completion of the WSSC Summit Addition project is critical for the long-term future of Seattle’s economy. In addition, continued work on the Addition will provide hundreds of family-wage construction jobs right now, which will help the community more quickly recover from the current recession,” City of Seattle Senior Deputy Mayor Michael Fong said in a letter committing to the proposal, according to expansion project officials.

Any loan from the city would require City Council approval. Expansion project developer the Pine Street Group says both the county and the city loans would “depends on participation by the State.” Continue reading

‘4/5ths’ — County proposal would make big loan to help patch part of $300M financing hole in Seattle’s massive, nearly complete convention center expansion

Crews pouring the roof deck at the Summit Addition last week at the Washington State Convention Center (Image: Lease Crutcher Lewis)

The developer of the massive convention center expansion under construction downtown says the project is seeking help from the the city, the state, and the county in patching a $300 million hole in its finances from the COVID-19 crisis. Thursday, King County Executive Dow Constantine announced he will step forward first with a proposed $100 million loan for the project from cash part of the county’s $3.4 billion investment pool.

But the city, and the state will have to follow suit, apparently.

“No, this is not enough,” Matt Griffin of developer Pine Street Group said in a press conference Thursday to discuss the proposed $100 million loan.

Constantine called the loan proposal on the “4/5ths” completed Washington State Convention Center expansion project “a safe investment.” Continue reading