New Life for Seattle Center

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Monday, April 24, 2006
Seattle PI

City looking to breathe new life into Seattle Center

By KATHY MULADY AND DEBERA CARLTON HARRELL
P-I REPORTERS

Modernize the Seattle Center's stuck-in-the-'60s Center House, revamp the funky Fun Forest, demolish Memorial Stadium, fix up the Monorail and give Mercer Arena to the Seattle Opera for storage.

And while you're at it, why not give all of the Seattle Center a fresher, more sophisticated feel, with some nice restaurants and cafes, someplace to enjoy a glass of wine before or after the show, and some nicer shops to capture the condo-dwellers moving into the neighborhood?

Those are just a few of the ideas to be highlighted Friday when a Seattle Center task force delivers its report to Mayor Greg Nickels on the Center's future.

The group's advice, nine months in the making, comes at a critical juncture for the 74-acre mishmash of park space, theater district, sports venues and kid magnets that has been called the city's living room.

For all its attractions, including the iconic Space Needle and the perennially popular Bumbershoot festival, the Seattle Center loses money. Many of its facilities are in disrepair, and campus advisers fear a spiral of bad news, with shabby or unkempt grounds discouraging visitors, degrading bookings and ultimately bleeding more red ink onto the books.

The Center's director of 18 years left her job this month. Attendance has sagged after the 2001 terrorist attacks, the dot-com bust and the collision and subsequent closure of the Center's World's Fair-vintage Monorail.

What's more, the political battle over KeyArena -- home to the Seattle Sonics basketball team and a key to the Center's financial health -- is coming to a head at the same time as scrutiny of the Center.

Wednesday, two days before Nickels receives the Seattle Center report, the City Council will take up the Sonics' demands for a $220 million renovation of the arena. The team has threatened to leave if it doesn't prevail.

Calling KeyArena the "800-pound gorilla," Nickels said in an interview Saturday that he appointed the task force because it was clear the Center's business model isn't working.

"We want to look at some of the opportunities to keep Seattle Center the dynamic, great cultural heart of the city that it is," he said.

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Looking at the full picture

By one line of thinking, the KeyArena debate is good for the Seattle Center.

It's helping focus attention on the entire campus, at least, and as the mayor's task force makes clear in its draft report, the fates of the arena and the larger Center are closely tied.

In fact, the group's top recommendation to Nickels and the City Council is to address the lingering debt of the last arena renovation, in 1995. Its specific suggestion may not sound like more than an accounting trick -- transfer the remaining $50 million KeyArena debt from the Seattle Center to the city of Seattle -- but the effect, says the task force, would be profound.

"This single move will allow Seattle Center to face its future without an ongoing deficit, thus making the greatest contribution to Seattle Center's financial viability," the draft report says.

Although KeyArena continues to be the biggest drain, the Seattle Center has other financial worries as well.

The vintage Monorail is out of action for the second time in less than two years. In May 2004, a fire damaged one of the two trains. Both were taken off line for repairs and didn't return until Christmas 2004. But a year later, the trains were down again after being damaged in a rare sideswipe accident. They aren't expected to be back in service until late summer.

The task force has recommended a $10 million overhaul of the system, including improvements to the station that runs behind the Center House. Maintenance and upgrades had been put on hold when the Seattle Monorail Project was expected to replace the old line.

Across the campus, buildings or attractions are showing effects of similarly deferred maintenance.

Local officials and business owners use expressions such as "ossified" and "stagnated" when talking about the Center. King County Executive Ron Sims recently described the Center as a "supersized, underutilized, government-owned tourist trap."

The task force's draft report encourages the city to "reinvent" aging buildings to stay fresh and meet market demands.

"Center House still looks -- and feels -- like the armory it was built to be," the report says. (The armory was built by the Army in 1939.)

The report is even more critical of the Fun Forest, saying the amusement park lacks relevance and currency, is worn and outdated, and has fallen behind on its lease payments.

"An assessment should be made of the highest and best public use of this valuable 5-acre property," according to the draft report. "It needs a fresh infusion of vision, rebranding and capital if it is to retain its current use."

Mercer Arts Arena, once home of the Seattle Thunderbirds ice hockey team and temporary host for the Seattle Opera and Pacific Northwest Ballet, has been closed since July 2003. Its floor is rotted, its roof leaks, its electrical and mechanical systems are substandard, it doesn't meet energy or accessibility codes -- and it can't easily be torn down because it shares a common wall with Marion Oliver McCaw Hall.

The task force's recommendation: Give the dump to the Seattle Opera. It might make a good storage building.

"Obviously the critical areas are Mercer Arena, the Fun Forest and Memorial Stadium; we have to look at how we want to redevelop those," said Deputy Mayor Tim Ceis. "Fun Forest is on (5) acres of prime property. Memorial Stadium will require a tremendous amount of work -- and money -- to bring it up to seismic codes. Structurally it is shot."

Even the parklike "free" areas of the campus are suffering.

The task force report notes that budget cuts have cost the campus thousands of flowers, and added weeds in their place. In 2000, for example, crews put in 6,000 summer plants and cared for 40 hanging flower baskets. By last year, they were down to 935 summer plants and no hanging baskets -- and the weeding schedule had slipped from once every six weeks to once for the entire year.

Dean Nelson, president of the Space Needle Corp., told the task force that the potential of the Seattle Center isn't being realized.

"We need to sparkle, but we don't," Nelson said. "There are amazing lost opportunities. Services here don't match up to what visitors want to experience."

Mix of public, private interests

At the heart of any discussion about the Seattle Center is a fundamental -- and decades-old -- tension about who should pay for it.

Unlike many urban parks with which it's compared -- Central Park in New York, Tivoli Gardens in Denmark, Quincy Market in Boston -- the Center is an amalgam of public and private facilities and interests.

It's flanked on the west by KeyArena, spendy concert venue and NBA gym, and on the east by Experience Music Project, Paul Allen's also spendy tribute to rock 'n' roll.

Near the park's southern edge stands the Space Needle, Seattle's most famous landmark but one owned and operated by a private business. On the north border, along Mercer Street, are McCaw Hall and Bagley Wright Theatre, cultural landmarks supported by wealthy private donors as well as -- thanks to a pair of 1990s levies -- city taxpayers.

In between are acres of park space and the popular International Fountain, always free and open to the public, except during big paid-admission festivals such as Bumbershoot, which is produced by a private concern rather than the city.

"Like a peacock, it has all these colorful feathers that make it one bird, and it is a unique bird," said Bryce Seidl, the Pacific Science Center's chief executive officer and a Seattle Center task force member.

"It can't be a private, gated amusement park," he said. "It requires capital investment to maintain an asset like this."

The debate over who pays for improvements will be driven by underlying questions: Should the Seattle Center of the future be more parklike, with support from taxpayer money? Or should it be more commercial and entrepreneurial in an effort to make it more self-sustaining?

Some say that with its mix of public and private enterprises, the Center should pay its own way. But others argue that the Seattle Center is unique and requires a regular public subsidy.

In its draft report, task force members warn against overcommercialization of the Center, including selling properties in the middle of the campus or gating the grounds. They also urge ongoing public financial support for the Center.

Center staff -- including recently departed Director Virginia Anderson -- have expressed strong support for floating a new levy for improvements when the current levy expires next year.

Sims, the county executive, is among those opposed to new taxpayer dollars for the Seattle Center. He says the Center could generate ample revenue on its own through entrepreneurial ventures and smart "public-private partnerships."

He said the Center needs an infusion of private funding and innovative ideas for the property, such as thoroughfares lined with cafes and restaurants, performance venues, artist lofts, "work-force housing" and an outdoor amphitheater.

"Where there have been improvements -- Bagley Wright Theatre, Pacific Northwest Ballet, the Opera House -- it has taken private money," Sims said.

Nickels said Saturday that he's inclined to agree with his task force and the Center's managers.

Not this year but probably next, the mayor said, he will propose a combined levy to pay for capital improvements at both the Seattle Center and Pike Place Market, another Seattle institution, which soon turns 100 and is showing its age.

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Envisioning a brighter future

All of this has the ring of history.

In 1927, city fathers persuaded voters to approve a $900,000 bond (about $94 million in today's dollars) to build a civic complex on a prairie between the Queen Anne and South Lake Union neighborhoods. That complex included an auditorium, arena and field on property deeded by the Denny family.

Thirty-five years later, voters supported one of the complex's biggest transformations, turning it into the site of the 1962 World's Fair. The exposition drew 10 million people and gave the Center some of its characteristic features, including the Space Needle, the Monorail and the site of the Pacific Science Center.

But by 20 years later, recall those who worked at the Center in the 1980s, the Seattle Center was a gloomy, unsafe place, to be avoided after dark. Old buildings left over from the World's Fair were deteriorating. A spiked fountain was dangerous. There was little in the way of landscaping. Ethnic festivals were non-existent.

In 1988, Disneyland's "Imagineers" were invited to pitch a plan to revive the Center. Their plan was rejected, but other ideas moved forward under the guidance of Anderson and support from taxpayers.

In 1991 and again in 1999, voters approved levies for the Seattle Center. The 1999 levy helped rebuild the opera house -- now McCaw Hall -- and develop Fisher Pavilion.

Would voters be willing to do that again?

Already, city officials are considering a transportation levy. Voters just approved a fire facilities levy, and before that, property tax increases for low-income housing and education programs. No Seattle Center levy will be proposed this year.

A recent economic study reported that the Seattle Center generates $1.15 billion a year in business activity, jobs and tax revenues to the region. The study found that 50 percent of the Center's visitors come from outside King County.

But the regional benefit comes at a cost.

The Seattle Center budget this year is $36.7 million. About 75 percent of its revenue comes from the Center itself, through events, rents, fees, tickets concessions, advertising and parking revenue. The remainder -- about $9 million -- comes from the city's general fund.

Between 2000 and 2004, the Seattle Center lost an average of $2 million a year, mainly related to KeyArena debt, according to the city's finance department.

The city sold three parcels of Seattle Center land last year, including 12 acres to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, to bring the Center back into the black in 2005 and, according to projections, 2006. Without the property sales, the Center would have lost $3.5 million last year and was heading for a $3.2 million loss this year.

Other changes in the area also affect the Seattle Center, including increasing density in South Lake Union and Queen Anne.

The Gates Foundation begins construction of its new headquarters across the street in 2008 with the first employees moving in two years later.

Allen, who as EMP owner already has an interest in the Center's success, is redeveloping South Lake Union through his Vulcan company. According to reports, 24,000 more jobs and 8,000 houses and condominiums are expected by 2020.

A streetcar extension, a significant renovation of the historic Monorail and improvements to Mercer Street would help the Center connect more easily with its neighbors, say some task force members.

"Imagine that you are a tourist and are trying to weave your way through traffic to try to get there," said Lyn Tangen, director of government and community relations for Vulcan. "It is a huge neighborhood amenity and it is really hard to get to."

She's among those who see the Center putting more emphasis on attractions that appeal to adults.

Restaurants worth lingering at after a basketball game or ballet would add to the attraction.

"Seattleites love to eat outside," Tangen told the task force. Street vendors, stalls, maybe a weekly market would add to the excitement, she said.

"Vulcan would love to market its new condos and office developments as just minutes to Seattle Center and the city's cultural district," she said.

Along with inviting ideas from stakeholders, task force members considered the attractions of other community gathering places nationally and internationally.

Modernizing the Center House by replacing solid walls with windows for views of the campus and fountain, adding cafes and building state-of-the-art conference rooms would move the Center in that direction, they say.

Putting aside the financial questions, boosters say they can envision a bright future for the Center, with a revitalized Fun Forest, spruced-up buildings and a working Monorail along with the sidewalk-cafe feel.

Louise Miller, a former King County councilwoman who is involved with the Seattle Opera and a member of Nickels' task force, imagines the Seattle Center of the future much like it is now, with a little more polish and sophistication.

"I see it as a vibrant and diversified place where all kinds of people can come for festivals and events that are free or affordable," Miller said.

"They can enjoy an evening meal, have a glass of wine, or get a burger and sit by the fountain," she said.

"It will continue to be the kind of place where someone coming out of the ballet can run into someone coming out of the hockey game."