The concept of transforming several underutilized city blocks in the south end of Downtown Seattle is getting a little more real this month, with the King County Council advancing a motion officially backing the idea. One of the County’s biggest undertakings in decades, Executive Dow Constantine’s proposal for a phased redevelopment that would see multiple county-owned blocks replaced by mixed-use towers with office space, retail, and thousands of new homes close to transit.
Following the release of the Civic Campus Initiative Strategic Plan earlier this year, a steering committee is set to wrap up its work by the end of 2024, providing specific recommendations on how to establish an entity that will be tasked with stewarding the entire redevelopment. In 2025, the County will initiate a master plan process, and the nonbinding motion approved by a council committee this week represents an attempt to get the legislative and executive branches on the same page, with shared goals for the project.
“It is the intent of the council for the county to redevelop its existing civic campus to create a dynamic neighborhood that includes housing and transportation infrastructure that will connect to, complement, and support surrounding neighborhoods in south downtown, including Chinatown International District, Pioneer Square, Yesler Terrace, and the Stadium Transition Area Overlay District,” the resolution, sponsored by government accountability committee chair Pete von Reichbauer and Councilmember Claudia Balducci states.
While Constantine is stepping aside after his fourth term concludes in 2025, Balducci and fellow County Councilmember Girmay Zahilay have both announced campaigns to succeed him. Their support for the Civic Campus Initiative suggests momentum could well carry over after the plan’s chief architect is out of office.
Among the priorities outlined in the motion, adding a significant amount of housing is number one: “Building thousands of units of housing for people of all incomes and prioritizing restoration and reuse of historic buildings.” Other priorities include adding shops, restaurants and gathering spaces, ensuring “safe, clean, accessible public spaces,” and realizing the value of the county’s land holdings for its taxpayers.
The ambitious redevelopment proposal is tied to a future light rail station in the vicinity of Pioneer Square. Though the Sound Transit Board of Directors has not yet finalized the route for a second tunnel through Downtown Seattle as a part of the Ballard Link project, the agency’s preferred alternative entails a likely station entrance at the current King County Administration Building, which sits vacant but has been identified for redevelopment potential.
The door appears to be closing on South Downtown routing alternatives. A recent technical assessment likely dealt a fatal blow to a second Chinatown-International District station under 4th Avenue S near Jackson Street. Continued community opposition to another alternative near 5th Avenue S appears to make that option untenable as well.
The agency has started exploring a potential underground connection to the existing Pioneer Square station that would make connections easier, though that won’t get close to making up the impact of losing a direct connection to Amtrak, Sounder, and the First Hill Streetcar that would come from a station near Jackson Street.
This week’s Civic Campus motion comes on the heels of a new report issued by the King County Auditor that notes the County’s current office buildings are highly underutilized. On an average workday, four workstations are available for every one employee in the office. The estimated occupancy rate never climbed above 50%, even in busier buildings, according to the report.
A pivot away from office space is part of wider trend across both the private and public sectors in Downtown Seattle, which has retained a high office vacancy rate after the Covid-19 pandemic. The County is seeking to promote flexibility and a mix of uses ahead of an outright goal of creating more dedicated office space. The motion’s language around office space seeks to prioritize “specific county functions to maintain a clear presence and front door for county government,” seemingly acknowledging that making space for all of the county’s workers within downtown isn’t the top priority.
“If we’re able to proceed on this, it’s going to make an incredible impact on county government’s ability to serve, and also, quite frankly, be accessible to our citizens,” von Reichbauer said following the motion’s passage out of committee. “The whole idea of this campus is not to improve for the bureaucrats like myself, it’s to get the public back into county government.”
Currently, the meeting chambers of the King County Council are locked behind security, on the upper levels of the aging County Courthouse. With the concept of a revitalized “Courthouse District,” a renovated courthouse would host a more open floorplan with more accessible council chambers. Meanwhile, most of the County’s court facilities would move to an upgraded building in SoDo.
The status quo isn’t really an option for King County’s downtown facilities, with an estimated $700 million needed just to bring the existing buildings up to a state of good repair, without bringing new value. Last month, the County Budget Director Dwight Dively detailed the fact that the County currently spends less than 25% of what is needed to maintain its buildings countywide, with any additional revenue options highly constrained by the state legislature.
This week, Tony Wright, the County’s Director of Facilities Management, provided his assessment of the potential for the Civic Campus redevelopment to allow the County to make headway on improving its facilities.
“I always come to the Council lamenting the state of our buildings, and the cost of long-term deferred maintenance. Our opportunity to change some of that, in the process of achieving some of the goals and objectives of changing this neighborhood, is something that needs to be seriously considered,” Wright said.
While many aspects of the plan still seem like a pipe dream, getting the County’s executive and legislative branches in agreement on the broad concept is a significant step forward toward making it a reality.
Ryan Packer has been writing for The Urbanist since 2015, and currently reports full-time as Contributing Editor. Their beats are transportation, land use, public space, traffic safety, and obscure community meetings. Packer has also reported for other regional outlets including Capitol Hill Seattle, BikePortland, Seattle Met, and PubliCola. They live in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle.