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).
7/30/07, 8:18 PM
Melissa Westbrook said…
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?
7/30/07, 10:36 PM
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.
7/30/07, 10:51 PM
Charlie Mas said…
I recently discovered that the District owns some land in Interbay. Does anyone know anything about it?
8/2/07, 11:28 AM
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