SEATTLE - If a new Seattle Arena ever sells hot dogs, it will be after watching sausage made on nights like this.
The Downtown Design Review Board, for the first time in nearly two years, heard Chris Hansen's plans for an NBA/NHL Arena in Seattle's SoDo neighborhood and moved the project forward.
The three-hour meeting included many of the designs which Hansen's team has publicly shared last month including sketches for a new pedestrian bridge and "living machine."
Anton Foss showed those designs again for a 14-foot wide pedestrian bridge that would stretch from near 4th Avenue to the east over the railroad tracks and to the southeast corner of the facility. The design also would eliminate the once proposed "drumlins" on the north side of the arena in favor of the machine, which would help recycle wastewater underneath a plaza on the north side of the arena.
Hansen's team said in another presentation in August it would cede 2,400 square feet of the arena site to the city to properly align Massachusetts Avenue, which is important to the Seattle Mariners franchise. They were the biggest changes of the Public Plaza which Hansen's team has pitched as a public benefit.
Foss reiterated Tuesday the bridge would also be part of a realignment of Holgate and would be built as a truss bridge wrapped by some sort of artwork. Hansen's team said in August that 1% of the overall cost of the project would go towards public artwork.
Seattle's lead design review planner for the project, Garry Papers, told the small gallery of onlookers at City Hall that the board focused only on the design of the building and inside the property lines, joking he couldn't address the status of the "Coyotes or
Kings" and that those kind of comments were not "germaine tonight."
The only public comment in the sparsely attended meeting came from the Port of Seattle which, again, expressed serious reservations about an arena in SoDo.
Joseph Gellings, with the Port, told the board "we still insist on talking about transportation and site features." Gellings said the pedestrian bridge would be "shoved" into the area and questioned the adequacy of the sidewalks. Gellings closed his remarks by saying he hoped "the matters can be resolved for all parties."
Papers said the Mariners also filed a letter with the board which noted they were "very concerned about pedestrian flows coming from other two venues are being undercalculated."
Board member Murphy McCullough, a developer, noted however the project had "evolved in a significant way."
The board then unanimously approved the plan with a set of conditions. Papers says those conditions, such as building materials and overhangs, will need to be worked out before the master use permit is issued.
The project now faces a potential key milestone on Thursday when the Seattle Design Commission, a different body, is scheduled to take a potential final vote. If they approve -- in an advisory capacity -- the public benefit, the project will go to the Seattle City Council. The commission signaled in a meeting last month it was prepared to move the project forward. Member Martin Regge called the design then a "win-win."
The Seattle City Council will have to approve the requested street vacation of a section of Occidental in order to trigger a final master use permit. It's unclear if the council would take the measure up quickly. Sources at City Hall have suggested council members are reluctant to bring the issue up prior to election day.
All nine council seats are up for grabs as part of Seattle's redistricting and there is no urgent request from the NBA or NHL to finalize the project.
The city and county could spend up to $200 million in public financing, paid back by the arena developer, if Hansen and others secure an NBA and NHL franchise to play in the building.
A competing effort in Tukwila is also still in process. That city is still processing an environmental review of a potential fully privately financed arena near Southcenter mall. Sources have told KING 5 investment banker Ray Bartoszek is still moving forward on the project despite not bidding on an NHL expansion franchise this summer and is aiming on closing on the property for the project later this year.
