Building 11: Parks Committee recap for July 7th

Home » Building 11: Parks Committee recap for July 7th

We’ve spent much of the last two Parks & Seattle Center Committees discussing the proposed lease amendment for Building 11 at Magnuson Park. Given the level of interest in the topic, I want to recap the past two meetings and provide some information on our next steps.

The existing 2008 lease, approved by Council on September 29th, 2008, is in effect. As of July 5th, Building 11 LLC has assumed responsibility for the building.

At our June 16th committee meeting, Council Central Staff’s Kieu-Anh King provided us with a detailed briefing. In his memo (attached here, with maps and matrices here), Kieu-Anh covered the basis for the legislation, provided a snapshot history of past legislative action pertaining to Building 11 since 2005, and walked the committee members through the specifics of the proposed lease agreement. This initial briefing prompted a number of questions from the committee, and the ensuing discussion compelled work on a number of alterations to the legislation we have before us. On-demand video footage of the June 16th meeting can be found here, starting at the 3-minute mark.

At the July 7th committee meeting, Kieu-Anh recapped his previous briefing and gave us a preview of possible legislative action. His second staff memorandum and a new pie chart cover the allocation of space inside Building 11. On-demand video of the meeting is available here, starting at the 6:40 mark.

The first portion of the July 7th briefing focused on those aspects of the proposed legislation that could qualify as “costs” to the City and enumerates the benefits the City receives as a result of this deal. More detail can be found in the staff memorandum, linked above.

Councilmembers also considered a series of possible amendments to the proposed legislation. Details on each of these proposed amendments are available on pages 5-8 of the staff memorandum, linked above. The committee evaluated each of the amendments and provided direction to Council staff, who will begin the process of formalizing these amendments. We anticipate a presentation of these amendments at our next committee meeting on July 21st.

 I want to thank everyone who provided public comment on Thursday. You were a patient group, waiting through nearly two hours of lengthy discussion to share your thoughts with us. Everyone who signed up to comment last Thursday morning got their chance to speak, and I know my colleagues and I appreciate both your time and your testimony.

If you have questions about the legislative process or the suggested timeline for the lease amendment, please contact my office via email or at 206.684.8801.