Seattle Convention Center
The Seattle Convention Center, formerly the Washington State Convention Center, is a convention center in Seattle, Washington, United States. It consists of two buildings in Downtown Seattle with exhibition halls and meeting rooms: Arch along Pike Street and Summit on the north side of Pine Street. The former straddles Interstate 5 and connects with Freeway Park. The convention center was planned in the late 1970s and funded through $90 million in bonds issued by the state legislature.
Construction began in September 1985 after delays in securing private funding; the complex opened on June 18, 1988. A major expansion began in 1999 and was completed in 2001, doubling the amount of exhibition space. A hotel and office tower were added, along with connections to the existing facility via a skybridge over Pike Street. At the site of the Convention Place transit station, located a block north of the original convention center, a second major expansion began in 2018 and opened in January 2023. The entire facility was renamed to the Seattle Convention Center in 2022, with the first two buildings named "Arch" and the second expansion named "Summit".
The convention center's largest annual events include PAX West, Emerald City Comic Con, Sakura-Con, and the Northwest Flower and Garden Show. It has approximately of usable space, including two exhibition halls with a combined area of. The convention center is located near several hotels and a major retailing center, as well as the Westlake transit station and a public parking garage.
History
Background and early proposals
In the early 20th century, conventions and trade shows in Seattle were traditionally hosted by arenas, hotels, ballrooms, department stores, and theaters. The Exhibition Hall at the Seattle Center was built to showcase fine art at the 1962 World's Fair. It re-opened the following year for conventions, trade shows, banquets, and other events. The city hosted its largest-ever convention, a week-long meeting of the Shriners, late June and early July 1969 at the Seattle Center Coliseum and around the Seattle Center grounds.The state government proposed a dedicated convention and trade center complex in the early 1970s as a form of economic stimulus following the "Boeing bust". The City of Seattle proposed to site the convention center at the Seattle Center, funding it with $10 million in Forward Thrust grants allocated towards a planned multipurpose stadium. The University of Washington, a major downtown landowner, and the city government considered another plan to renovate or replace the Olympic Hotel with a modern convention-and-hotel facility in 1974. The following year, Mayor Wes Uhlman formed a task force to study potential locations for a convention center. These included the Seattle Center and nearby Metro Transit bus base on Mercer Street. King County Executive John Spellman recommended use of the near-complete Kingdome multipurpose stadium for large conventions. The city government hired a consulting team in 1975 to determine the feasibility of a large convention center, paid for by urban development funds from the federal government. The feasibility study, completed in 1977, recommended a facility with of meeting space and of exhibition space to host conventions of up to 7,000 attendees. Construction would require $47 million of state and county funds, at one of four sites: the Metro Transit bus base, the Nile Temple near the Seattle Center, on 6th Avenue near University Street, and near Stewart Avenue and 5th Avenue. The feasibility study estimated the convention center could generate $22 million in annual revenue and spur $50 million in associated private development.
The following year, the Seattle Chamber of Commerce formed a community task force representing government agencies and business groups to explore the remaining site options and submit a funding proposal to the state legislature. The task force, together with Mayor Charles Royer, announced their recommendation of the Metro Transit bus base site in December 1978, rejecting a plan from city-hired consultants and deciding instead to side with the business community. The city and chamber of commerce began formally lobbying the state legislature to approve $64.2 million in 30-year general obligation bonds issued by the state, and a hotel-motel tax increase to pay for the project, which was dubbed the Washington State Convention and Trade Center. The state legislature considered the financing plan in February 1979, with Governor Dixy Lee Ray taking a neutral stance on state funding despite her support of the project. However, the bill was introduced too late in the legislative session to pass out of committee and was delayed to the next year. A citizen initiative restricting the city's ability to fund tourist activities, including the convention center, filed and placed on the November 1979 ballot by anti-tax activists. It was defeated by voters, but the campaign introduced public doubts about the project.
State approval and location planning
The state legislature formed a special committee in early 1981 to study the convention center proposal and a separate bipartisan commission to review its economic feasibility. During the city's push for a bill in the state legislature, a group of Bellevue businessmen planning to build their own convention center questioned the use of the county's taxes to support the Seattle-based convention center while ignoring the needs of the Eastside. The Bellevue group threatened to take the dispute to the state legislature, where support for the Seattle convention center was waning. Instead, a compromise was reached to tax hotels in Seattle and Bellevue at different rates. The special committee evaluated a new set of proposed sites for the convention center, including the north side of the Kingdome. However, a design spanning Interstate 5 near Freeway Park was unanimously recommended in December. The freeway site was more difficult to construct and cost $25 million more than the proposed Kingdome and Metro Transit sites but was closer to downtown hotels and retailers.The Select Committee on Feasibility of a State Trade and Convention Center wrote a bill in late 1981 providing $99 million in issued bonds for the convention center project paid with a countywide hotel-motel tax. It was read during the 1982 legislative session and passed by both houses during the regular session before being signed by Governor Spellman on March 13, 1982. The bill included provisions for other cities to use a similar hotel-motel tax for their convention centers. It faced some opposition because of the state's worsening debt problems, which could prevent it from repaying the bonds if the hotel-motel tax failed to fully cover construction cost. Some of the lawmakers who supported the bill also doubted that the project could be fully funded due to the saturated bond market and high interest rates at the time. During the initial bond sale in January 1983, the state sold $92.75 million in general obligation bonds at 8.85 percent interest.
In June 1982, the state legislature established a public nonprofit corporation to manage construction and operations of the convention center. Governor Spellman appointed the corporation's board of directors which included banker James Cairns Jr. as chair, civic activist Jim Ellis, former councilwoman Phyllis Lamphere, and business leaders from Seattle and the Eastside. The appointed board was tasked with selecting a site for the convention center, with hopes of opening the facility by 1986. Public support for the project remained high because of a local recession. The project's location and public amenities, however, were the subject of a major debate that spanned several months of public hearings and city council meetings. TRA Architects were named as the head of a joint venture design team in September 1982. They unveiled preliminary designs for the convention center in February 1983 based on three finalist sites and a general size of. The freeway site, supported by downtown businesses and authorized by the state legislature, would span Interstate 5 between Freeway Park and Pike Street. It would include landscaped terraces and private development using the freeway's air rights, leased from the Washington State Department of Transportation. The Seattle Center site, supported by the city government, would replace the Metro Transit bus base and part of Memorial Stadium. The stadium part would be traded by the Seattle School District for the Metro Transit bus base. Some of the design options for the Seattle Center site included integrated bus facilities for Metro Transit in a lower level garage as well as a spur of the monorail serving the facility's top floor. The Kingdome site, deemed the one "left behind" in the "two-horse race" between the freeway and Seattle Center proposals, would replace the north parking lot and be adjacent to King Street Station. A pedestrian bridge would cross over the tracks to reach 4th Avenue South. A report prepared by a consultant hired by the convention center board favored the freeway site for its marketability. However, it found that the Kingdome and Seattle Center sites would be easily expandable and would have a lower operating cost due to shared equipment. The report also raised concerns about the potential loss of low-income housing concentrated on First Hill and the potential increase in noise and air pollution for the neighborhood. A separate report by the city concluded the freeway site would hurt operating revenue from parking at the Seattle Center. It also criticized the consultant's report for its lack of information and cost data.
In early March, various groups announced their support for the two front-runner sites at the freeway and Seattle Center ahead of a potential decision by the convention center board scheduled for March 31. Downtown business groups, including the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce, as well as tourism groups, downtown retailers, and hotel owners supported the freeway site. The Seattle Center site received the support of mayor Charles Royer, the city council, who voted 8–1 in favor of it, and several unions and tenants groups. The design of the freeway concept was later modified at the urging of First Hill neighborhood groups to include low-income housing to replace lost units. On March 31, 1983, the convention center board of directors voted 8–1 in favor of the freeway site. Several boardmembers cited its potential as a catalyst for a downtown revival that outweighed the higher cost and complexity. The city government responded by pledging to cooperate on design and permitting of the convention center project while continuing work on potential enhancements to the Seattle Center and Memorial Stadium. The state legislature authorized construction and further design of the convention center project during a special session in late May. The legislature also reduced the project's annual operating budget and rejected a proposed $6 million issue of bonds.