The Seattle Monorail Project and its consultant, GVA Kidder Mathews, are taking the final steps to prepare for the receipt of bids for the 33 properties which monorail is offering for sale.

Bids for those properties, or any combination of those properties, will be received until 5 p.m. on Friday, March 17.

The adopted monorail disposition plan was designed to offer a clear, fair and equitable process for all potential buyers and produce the highest possible return for the monorail project so that it can pay off its remaining debt and cease collection of the motor vehicle excise tax as quickly as possible. If the project gets bids for what it paid for the property, the license tab tax could be ended before the end of this year.

Interested bidders can review a large volume of information on each property being offered for sale, as well as bid forms and a description of the bid procedure, on the dedicated website.

"The website is the key to this process" explains GVA Kidder Mathews Senior Vice President Rick Osterhout. "It enables anyone interested to review all of the detail about any of the properties for sale, thereby reducing the amount of time needed to determine if they wish submit a bid. The website marries the best practices of the private sector with the transparency of the public sector."

The disposition of property is part of the ongoing effort by monorail to respond to the will of voters and terminate its activities quickly and efficiently. Since voters rejected a proposition to construct an initial phase of the Monorail Green Line in November, monorail has moved to liquidate its assets, retire its debt and prepare for the termination of the motor vehicle excise tax that supports its operations.