A rendering of the new reception area (Image: Crosscut)
Cascade Public Media’s new home (Image: Childhaven)
The workers of Seattle public television KCTS and Crosscut are moving onto Broadway.
Cascade Public Media says it is in the process of opening its new First Hill headquarters at 316 Broadway. It acquired the building from Childhaven, a provider of therapeutic services for children who have experience trauma and neglect, for $23 million in 2022, according to King County Records.
The media nonprofit says employees of the public television station and Crosscut are now working in the newly reopened Broadway facility and that the organization is preparing the building’s “several large gathering spaces” to host KCTS and Crosscut events with the “potential to enable new types of community engagement” for the organization.
“The thing this building offers is a chance for us to reimagine the ways in which we interact with the community,” president and CEO Rob Dunlop said in the Crosscut story announcing the opening.
The future could also involve the use of the building for community events and gatherings, Cascade said. Meanwhile, there are other changes afoot including a plan for a massive sign marking the headquarters place in the city’s changing media landscape. That sign will likely help introduce a new brand — Cascade says it is in the midst of an effort to rename itself after decades in the city.
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CHS reported in 2022 on plans for the move from Cascade’s longtime Mercer Street home near the Seattle Center as the nonprofit media organization began a $12.5 million capital campaign to help cover the cost of acquiring the 300-block Broadway building from Childhaven. The building is a relatively new addition to Broadway, part of redevelopment in the early 2000s just above Seattle University.
Dunlop told CHS at the time that the move would 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.”
“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.”
Dunlop said the move also had some practical advantages moving engineers 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.
The addition will also 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 S Dearborn and Maynard Ave S after years in the auto row-era offices above 11th and Pine.
The opening of the new headquarters and broadcast facility comes as the Capitol Hill-area office space real estate market is bracing for a blow. CHS reported here on the planned closure of the 11th Ave WeWork that will empty the five-story Kelly Springfield development.
As it moves forward toward a future on Broadway under a new brand, Cascade Public Media has grown into a media organization with around 150 employees. Tax filings show it generated around $42 million in revenue in 2022 as fundraising and subscription campaigns ramped up to help pay for the new HQ. Cascade is also facing growing pains amid the shifting tides of Seattle media. Dunlop got into a tangle in 2022 as union workers at Cascade Public Media fought against an organizational restructuring.
Meanwhile, the investment on Broadway will includes an expansive reception area, a “prefunction lounge” event space, a 250-person multi-purpose event space, and “coffee lounges” on upper floors “to serve as a breakroom and flexible workspace for staff and a space for smaller events.”
On the building’s second level, an overhaul of Childhaven’s former playground space is creating a new “outdoor terrace and event space overlooking South Seattle.” Above the terrace, the nonprofit is asking the city for permission for an exemption to the block’s zoning rules for the addition of “a distinctive wall sign on the south-facing upper story of this impressive 5-story structure.” Whatever the nonprofit media organization calls itself in the future, it will soon be broadcasting that name far and wide above Broadway.
Cascade Public Media is now located at 316 Broadway. The organization says to stay tuned for information on an opening event welcoming the public.
According to promo spots that have been running on KCTS-TV for the past month or so, the “new” name is Cascade/PBS.