SEATTLE — For the first time in five years, a new tenant will set up shop in one of downtown Seattle’s largest vacant buildings.
The producers of the iconic Bumbershoot Arts & Music Festival are planning to make it into a new arts space.
The only thing you can see right now in the 66,000-square-foot building on the corner of 3rd Avenue and Virginia Street is an empty space. But Greg Lundgren sees a lot of potential.
"Choose your own adventure, installations, sculpture, kiosks, popups,” Lundgren said. “There's so much space here that is just really fun to imagine all that can happen here."
Lundgren is the creative director of "New Rising Sun," the company that manages the Bumbershoot Arts & Music Festival. He got the keys last week and is now working on making this blank canvas, into a Seattle arts venue to be called "Cannonball Arts."
"It's meant to do the work that Bumbershoot doesn't do the other 363 days of the year,” Lundgren said. “So, it's an ability and platform to support and celebrate artists, all year round.">
This building located in the heart of downtown has been vacant since 2019, when it housed "Bed, Bath and Beyond." It's in a part of downtown where you'll encounter empty storefronts and a higher rate of crime according to Seattle Police data. Jon Scholes, the president of the Downtown Seattle Association believes this space will help change that.
"More feet on the street, more activity, more vibrancy,” Scholes said. “Storefronts that are full where there's lots going on are storefronts that are safe and active and welcoming for everybody."
Lundgren agreed and hopes people will take the leap, in celebrating the arts in this new space.
"It's very much like jumping off a high dive with your eyes closed and I think there's enough water in the pool," Lundgren said.
"Cannonball Arts" is expected to open next spring. It has a five-year lease.