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Tipped Off
02-13-2007, 12:33 PM
Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Kent plan is worth hearing

By BILL VIRGIN
P-I COLUMNIST

So you've got Bellevue as a potential site for a new arena for the Sonics, and Renton hoping to land the arena as part of a massive new development there, and Seattle wondering what happens should one of its major professional sports teams skip town, turning KeyArena into the world's largest storage locker.

Who might be the winner in this tussle?

How about Kent?

Kent, you might have noticed, doesn't have a professional sports franchise-scale arena, nor is it proposing to build one.

What Kent does propose to build is a 6,500-seat events center, along the lines of what Everett has, for which the anchor tenant would be the Seattle Thunderbirds hockey team (a team in the same league is the anchor for Everett's arena).

Whether by design or happenstance, Kent could wind up providing a model in miniature for what is supposedly the new wave of arena development, not just here but around the country: the anchor for an entertainment and retail district.

Arenas are only partly about providing homes for nomadic sports franchises, although that's where most of the attention gets focused. While there's always been an economic-development component to the justification for stadiums and arenas, increasingly the argument is not so much what such a building might do for the regional economy as a whole but what it might spur in one corner of town.

Instead of an arena that sits off by itself, surrounded by a sea of parking lots and used only at night and on weekends, the building and all the people brought in for games, concerts, trade shows, large meetings and the like provide a catalyst for revitalization of an existing district or new development.

In Kent's case, the timeline has been flipped around. The new development, in the form of Kent Station and its collection of restaurants and stores, is already in place, just one block away from the proposed site of the events center.



The addition of an events center, however, could provide a nice complement for Kent Station, with people coming to attend a game or a meeting, and wandering over before or after for a meal.

The city of Kent has already brought on board a contractor, who is to deliver to city staff and council in early March an estimate of the construction cost (for both the arena and options for conference space).

"We see that as a real critical date," says John Hodgson, Kent's chief administrative officer. For Kent to make its opening date of October 2008, materials will have to be ordered soon and construction start in June.

In the meantime the city is working on a lease with the T-birds and will soon start interviewing potential operators of the facility. There's also a provision in the governor's proposed budget for $3 million for the events center, and pending legislation to allow Kent to set up a public facilities district, Hodgson says.

Even if the Sonics do wind up in Renton, Hodgson doesn't see that as an impediment to what Kent wants.

"It's a very different facility" in terms of scale (18,000 to 20,000 seats for the Sonics arena) and the events they would attract, he says. The sort of concerts and events that might go to Kent, he adds, might decide to play Everett as well.

What will also be interesting to watch is how or whether an arena changes the nature of The Landing, the 68-acre development on former Boeing Co. property near the south end of Lake Washington in Renton, near where the arena might be built. So far Kent Station has the more enticing mix of restaurants and shops.

The list of tenants for The Landing announced so far, such as Target, Staples and Sleep Country, has been somewhat underwhelming in comparison. Although developers describe The Landing as an "urban village," so far the mix seems to suggest a standard retail strip mall.

Alex Pietsch, Renton's administrator for economic development, neighborhoods and strategic planning, says The Landing, at three times the size of Kent Station, is emerging "as a bit of a hybrid," with a section that looks much like a traditional retail development and another with a "strong urban entertainment core" that includes both housing and restaurants.

One might argue that the Sonics are bailing out of an area that has much of what the new model of arena development is supposed to look like, what with KeyArena's proximity to the lively "entertainment core" on lower Queen Anne.

But public subsidies, improved lease terms and revenue opportunities and better access for attendees in a new building are enticing enough to encourage the Sonics to look elsewhere.

Whether the Sonics care much if they're part of an entertainment district (particularly one that snares revenue that's not going to arena tenants and concessionaires) might be revealed if the team's owners pick one of the proposed sites in Bellevue, which are well removed from the city's retail and entertainment center.

Meanwhile, there sits Kent, well out of the competitive battles among Seattle, Bellevue, Renton and Oklahoma City, with a much smaller, more financially manageable project, one that fits nicely with development already in place and which could be built and operating well before a Sonics playpen.

Which means that for all those jokes made over the decades about Kent, it may well have the last laugh -- and the dollars first.

Shooter
02-13-2007, 05:07 PM
The arena here in Kent should pretty much be a done deal. The city has spent a lot of money to turn around and say no. There is really no opposition to the arena getting built. Only thing that I see stopping it is if the construction costs go through the roof.

I believe the next meeting is March 6th, this should be the town meeting where they vote to build or not.

As far as the Sonics go, cant wait to see what they have to say when they get turned down and the race track gets a thumbs up. yeehoo

woody
02-22-2007, 04:52 PM
I saw the blueprints yesterday at a contractor's office. Mortenson has been selected as the General Contractor and they're asking for bids on the foundation for the new Kent Events Center (driven pile in the plans) on a fast-track schedule. It looks like a very well designed arena. Obviously, the proposed construction start dates are real. applause