By Jean Godden
When I first walked into City Hall as a neophyte councilmember in 2004, workers had just started demolishing the old Public Safety Building. The building was a crumbling structure infamous for its abandoned city jail and for its erratic people-trapping elevators.
Once the last debris was carted off, a boarded-up pit was left behind. The yawning cavity occupied the full block between Third and Fourth and Cherry and James. That hole in the heart of the city still blights the neighborhood, just as it has for a dozen years.
Greg Nickels, who was mayor at the time, envisioned a public-private development. The site would house a 43-story office/residential building, a jointly-owned underground garage and a civic square, rimmed with retail spaces.
However, that grand vision -- Seattle's answer to San Francisco's Union Square -- was not to be. No sooner was the plan with Triad Development approved than the Great Recession hit in 2008. The project was put on hold. Five years passed. Then came the 2013 election and, along with it, a messy political episode that ballooned into a scandal and touched Triad.
Mayor Ed Murray -- the third mayor whose office has overlooked the giant pit -- pledged that the city would cut ties with Triad. He tried to work out a deal allowing Triad to transfer its development rights to a new developer. But the search for partners capable of taking over the project failed twice.
Last week Mayor Murray finally sent the City Council legislation that would authorize the sale of the Civic Square project to Bosa Development. Bosa is a British Columbia developer known for building residential condos in San Diego and the Insignia Towers in Seattle.
The new Civic Square agreement differs from the original plan in several respects. Bosa Development is seeking to build a taller, skinnier 60-story residential tower with street-level retail space and a 25,000-square-foot public plaza. Sweetening the deal will be a $16 million cash sale and a guarantee of $5.7 million in fees that the city will use to leverage low-income housing.
Bosa stands to gain ownership of the entire block with the city transferring the land to Bosa. However, as previously intended, an easement will provide for public use of the plaza. The city will also have exclusive use of the plaza up to 10 times a year for public celebrations. But the city will no longer be responsible for the plaza's operating and maintenance costs.
Fred Podesta, the city's director of Finance and Administrative Services, says, "In case the Seahawks win the Superbowl, we'll have a great place to celebrate."
If the deal is approved by the City Council, Murray's legislation would authorize the sale of the property, pending a number of conditions such as Triad releasing the city from its liability. The $16 in proceeds from the land sale to Bosa apparently would go to city projects such as a job training program or a multi-cultural community center. Beware: There's nothing like a pot of unearmarked funds.
But the change in design means that Bosa would have to start over and apply for a new master-use permit. That calls for a 14-18 month delay and means that any proposed project can't begin until Jan. 1, 2019 at the earliest.
All that said, the news is generally good. It does seem that after an angst-ridden 12-year saga, it is time to move along. The hole in the city's heart has yawned unoccupied under three different mayors, another mayor to come, four potential developers and who knows how many neophyte councilmembers.
