It will be quite the pledge break. Cascade Public Media and its Seattle public television station KCTS and online news provider Crosscut are coming to Broadway in a $23 million deal.

The nonprofit media organization is running a $12.5 million capital campaign to help cover the cost of acquiring a 300-block Broadway building from Childhaven, a provider of therapeutic services for children who have experience trauma and neglect. The property’s price tag is $23,000,000 according to King County records.

“Cascade Public Media will move to a pre-existing 44,317 square foot building in Seattle’s First Hill neighborhood,” Cascade’s announcement reads. “The space is well suited for the needs of KCTS 9 and Crosscut and is ideally located within communities we serve and among those with whom we hope to build a deeper connection.”

UPDATE: Cascade president and CEO Rob Dunlop tells CHS the move will put the organization in “a location where we hope to increase our connection to a more diverse collection of neighborhoods such as the International District, the Central District, and Capitol Hill.”

Dunlop says there is another benefit — they’ll be a lot closer to the KCTS transmission facility and the TV and radio towers of E Madison. KCTS has been broadcasting from that facility for more than 60 years.

“At the same time, we retain easy access to downtown, where many of our political/business/community leaders converge around the issues that are influencing our region,” Dunlop said. “This is important for the public interest journalism work we do through Crosscut. We are convening more social and civic community events and we hope that this location expands access for different audiences to engage in those activities.”

The Puget Sound Business Journal was first to report on the deal Wednesday including details of the decade-long search by the 125-person company to find a new home. Cascade plans to move in by the end of 2023, the Journal reports.

The building is relatively new, part of redevelopment in the early 2000s.

Cascade has made its home in a facility on the Seattle Center campus.

The Broadway deal has been in the works for at least a year. In July 2021, Cascade asked the Seattle Department of Construction & Inspections for an interpretation of city code to determine if its planned use for the property would qualify as the “institutional” category it maintained under Childhaven. In October, the city issued its decision that Cascade’s plans would not constitute a costly and potentially risky “change of use” process. There was no appeal.

The addition will return an active major media company to the area including the editors, writers, and reporters of Crosscut and the studio facilities for KCTS. In 2020, CHS reported on The Stranger’s decision to exit Capitol Hill for less dilapidated, more affordable digs at South Dearborn Street and Maynard Avenue South after years in the auto row-era offices above 11th and Pine.

As the Stranger ended up with a catbird seat to history in its final months above 11th and Pine — the epicenter of CHOP and the 2020 protests, KCTS and Crosscut will now have a viewpoint colored by a neighborhood backdrop. Many of their Broadway neighbors near Boren and along First Hill will be major medical institutions. But there will also be proximity to the academics and activities of nearby Seattle University, the wave of market rate and affordable development around Yesler Terrace, and new creative energy from additions like the 2021-born Museum of Museums as well as the Frye.

Crosscut and KCTS are planning to move in by the end of next year at 316 Broadway. Learn more at cascadepublicmedia.org.

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