May 15, 2020

Funding shortfall threatens to stop convention center addition

Photo by Tim Rice [enlarge]

This aerial photo taken six weeks ago shows steel framing being erected.

An online press conference this morning is expected to address potential funding shortages on the $1.8 billion Washington State Convention Center addition.

An invitation to the event sent yesterday by a public relations firm representing developer Pine Street Group said a long-planned second round of bond financing is required but there isn't sufficient tax revenue to support it. The coronavirus pandemic has resulted in plummeting lodging tax revenues, which support bond funding for the 1.4 million-square-foot addition.

The invitation said King County Executive Dow Constantine, civic leaders and representatives from the convention center, labor and business are expected at today's event, where they will seek federal support to keep the project under construction. It said, “The Convention Center Addition may be forced to stop construction — imperiling the recovery in the Puget Sound region and the state — if federal stimulus funds are not secured.”

Representatives from the development group were not available for comment yesterday.

Former Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn yesterday tweeted: “Last week I asked online what was happening with the $1.7 billion Convention Center Expansion considering that their two sources of revenue, hotel tax and convention revenues had cratered. Their response (or lack of it) was revealing.”

McGinn was seeking the project's budget and revenue documents, including current balance sheets, projected and actual expenses by month, and projected and actual revenues by month. He also asked if they were negotiating with lenders, given the decline in revenues.

“I must have struck a chord, so they offered me a private conversation with someone at the Convention Center,” he tweeted. “I've seen this game played before, so I asked them to just share their budget info — you know, like every other public entity does!”

McGinn wrote that representatives from the convention center then suggested he submit a public information request for those documents.

“Business interests go (to) the legislature, get a public facilities district that can impose taxes, and they are off to the races,” he wrote. “It's not surprising that they won't routinely share budget info. The whole thing is designed to be shielded from public scrutiny and pressure.”

The project is being built on the site of the former Convention Place Station/bus layover lot and is surrounded by three prominent city streets — Boren Avenue, Pine Street and Olive Way. It includes a 150,000-square-foot exhibit hall, 100,000-square-foot flex hall, meeting rooms, a ballroom, an outdoor terrace and three levels of garage parking.

The project's website says work going on this week includes continued excavation operations; foundations, waterproofing and vertical concrete; erection of structural steel, metal deck, rebar and concrete on metal deck; loading and exporting soil; and spraying fireproofing on steel. Construction never stopped as a result of Gov. Jay Inslee's stay-at-home order because it was determined to be an essential project.

A recent post on the convention center's website said construction will be finished in early 2022 and the addition will open in spring 2022, nearly doubling the capacity of the current convention center.

The project is led by the joint venture team of Clark Construction Group and Lease Crutcher Lewis, operating as the general contractor/construction manager. LMN Architects is the designer and Magnusson Klemencic Associates is the civil and structural engineer.

The invitation said there are over 2,000 construction workers on the project.