Seattle Center and District Holdings

I missed this interesting article from The Stranger in July. It's a discussion about what should be done with the Seattle Center. I particularly liked the comparisons of how much land there is versus other parks worldwide. Of particular note is how much the land at Memorial Stadium is worth (somewhere between $50-60M) . I'm not of a mind to sell it - it was created as a memorial and just because time passes it doesn't make it less so - but is it being used to its best i.e. lots of use and/or lots of profit for such a prime spot owned by the district? Because of the shortage of high school fields with stands, I believe it gets used a lot for high school football games in the fall and an occasional concert for Bumbershoot, etc. Any thought?

Comments

Anonymous said…
Melissa-
One important point not reported is that if SPS stops using Memorial Stadium for sporting events, it automatically goes to the city, for free. I am not okay with a $55 millon plus SPS land donation, particularly if it means loosing the substantial money SPS gets from the Memorial Stadium parking lot (six figures a year).
I didn't know that. How does that work if the District owns it? Is it something to doing with being part of Seattle Center?
Anonymous said…
SPS got the land from the city orginally, orginal agreement had a reversionary clause that kicks the land back to the city if SPS stops using it for athletic purposes. There was some press on this this last time a mayor tried to land-grab it back at no cost, that is where my info is from. Ron English at SPS is the person who is in the know on the topic.
Charlie Mas said…
I recently discovered that the District owns some land in Interbay. Does anyone know anything about it?

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