Pacific Northwest artist retail gallery? Jesus. They really have no clue, do they? They should just sell the whole thing and turn it into a mall.

Ah, I'm okay with the compromise. At least we get KEXP and additional green space.

Remember when people opposed the monorail because its proposed passage through Seattle Center would "destroy" the "sacred space" or some shit like that? I guess all this is okay though...

I'm very OK with how this turned out at the moment, compared to the abortion that was v1 of the plan before we all raised hell.

Wise king Solomon you are, Mr. Mayor.

So, when the city pays lip service to "helping Pioneer Square" (home of numerous privately-owned retail art galleries), but then turns around and builds a competing city-owned retail art gallery on the other side of town, how is that not a big "fuck you" to Pioneer Square?

OK, I recognize that the museum is controversial, but the site where it's moving is not controversial, it's just a site. There's a lot of legitimate drama and discussion going on here that isn't well served by you throwing around the word "controversial" every other sentence.

Harumph.

@6, it strikes me not as a "fuck you", but as an actual fucking.

Manufactured outrage was manufactured.

I feel like they took the time to hear everyone's concerns and are trying to give something to everyone. This seems like a solid compromise all around.

is anybody really surprised about mayor McSchwinn's choice here? i think not. kexp gets a bone, the pirate gets a bigger bone and we the people get a green space. thanks beardo...@6 fnarf nailed it - small businesses, just go away! retail art gallery my ass.

please tell me KEXP will limit the begging for money over and over. to hear john richards and staff talking that shit reminds me wfmu is thee station to listen to (and kbcs locally).

The "1952" World's Fair? Apparently, some journalists are so set on being snarky that they forget to check dates and facts.

Huh, little bit of everything. Count me in the "at least we aren't just getting a stupid glass museum" crowd.

As much as I would personally like to see Chihuly's bloated, pompous corpse swing from the nearest lamp post, I can live with this. Good job, Mayor.

@14, No one reads the Stranger for actual facts.

That's for journalists, not activists.

Seattle's Worlds Fair was in 1962.

I help put on a large event in the Northwest Rooms every year, it will be sad to lose that space. I also have to question the loss in revenue for the city. KEXP is only going to pay $65,000 a year to rent that space, it must take in $20,000 or more each week currently in rentals for events, not to mention a lot of taxes and event fees, that seems like a big loss of money for the city. We will probably be forced to take our event outside the city of Seattle, as will a bunch of other conventions and festivals that currently use the Northwest Rooms. I like KEXP and all, it just seems like in tough budget times, now is not a good time for taxpayers to be subsidizing a radio station with deeply discounted rent rates.

politicians trying to please everybody, what a surprise!

what you should be asking is who are the losers? e.g. who's in the KEXP building right now that will be kicked out? and where will the money for tearing down Memorial Stadium bleachers or renovating the KEXP building is going to come from?

Chihuly is as kitsch as Thomas Kinkade. I want my crappy fun park back.

Instead of raising 10 million to tear up the southern memorial stadium bleachers, why not raise 20 million to bring the seattle center arena up to code for use as a music and sports facility which would be of much greater utility than a little more green space.

@21, is the Arena even open? I thought it was boarded up since the earthquake? It's just going to sit there forever and rot into the ground, right?

@18, good point about the Northwest Rooms. Small-scale meeting space is kind of hard to find around here. And those rooms do get heavily used. Where's the record meet going to go?

Tukwilla/Southcenter and Bellevue is where most of cons have moved, you can get cheaper spaces to rent and those cities charge a lot less in fees and taxes. Which I hope McGinn thought out, it's not just rental losses, there's a lot of city taxes and fees added to every ticket sale when you hold an event there. All the revenue stream is going to get lost by the city. And the surrounding parking lots, restaurants, etc. up in that corner of the Center are already hurting since the loss of the Sonics at Key Arena. I like KEXP and think it's the best radio station in the city, but I also think having a big central space people can rent out for 10-15K for the weekend for a convention or festival is an asset to the city in hosting a variety of events and brings in more revenue.

@14,17, My finger slipped. It's been fixed.

Cienna, what about this statement?

The station is negotiating a 30-year lease agreement with the Seattle Center for an annual rent of $290,500.

According to the Seattle Times, however:
KEXP would pay the city $62,500 a year in rent.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/lo…

You'll forgive me if I extend the assholes at the Seattle Times more credibility, as yours on this topic is completely shot.

But out of curiosity, where did you get your figures for KEXP negotiating nearly for nearly $300K a year? Their proposal wasn't for nearly that amount.

@6 and @8 are correct. I love it when you guys figure out what happened.

@23 part of the Northwest Rooms was sold to SIFF for their new space. The rest was originally planned to be removed for a Monorail station, but will now be repurposed for a Light Rail station.

@26, from KEXP. The cash rent is $62,500; in-kind rent is $228,000 (provided from on-air spots and tags), for a total of $290,500.

Any idea where Bumbershoot's going to go during this rebuild?

That's what I thought. They arrived at some value for the number of times they plan to say "Live from Seattle Center" on air and claim it as in-kind rent.

In truth, they are paying $62.5K a year in rent, for 28,000 sq. ft of space.

That's more square footage than the Children's Museum (which is 22,000 sq. ft). The Children's Museum pays $16K a month, nearly $200K a year.

KEXP got quite a deal out of this.

@18 - you should watch the press conference before commenting because this was addressed. There is space near Center Square that will be converted to rentable meeting rooms that should capture more of this income.

Also, there is work being done on expanding the Convention Center, so expect more conventions coming to Seattle via that.

Will @28, if I didn't know better I'd read what you wrote there as saying "will now be repurposed as a Light Rail station." In Seattle Center. Where the Northwest Rooms are. You couldn't possibly have said that though; not even you is THAT confused. So what did you really mean? Or do you really believe that Link Light Rail is coming to Seattle Center?

Spectacular, just spectacular commenting there, Mr. Affleck-Asch.

KEXP got a great deal and an excellent location. In addition to neighboring SIFF and Vera, that corner of Seattle Center is a lot more accessible to Lower Queen Anne than the urban dead zone around the Space Needle.

Haha, wow, leave it to folks in the comments to take what the rest of the city is seeing as a positive and turning it into the WORST THING EVERRRRRR

@33 Believe me I know what I'm talking about, we've been talking to the Center directly since the announcement came out. Those other rental spaces won't work for most of the larger festivals and conventions that currently use the Northwest Rooms. There are other spaces on the Center grounds that might be usable, but they will need modifications and they aren't sure they want to spend the money on them. The Northwest Rooms have a great load in situation for big events, a loading area where large trucks can back in less than 50 feet from double doors. The Exhibition Hall would work for more events if it was modified to have street level load in. There's other requirements for some of the other spaces including being forced to higher security to police the load in areas. I think this is a sweetheart deal for KEXP, and like I said I like the stations, even though I think radio is about dead. But I think there will be a big loss of revenue for the city on this at a time when taxpayers can ill afford it. I prioritize police, libraries, schools and hospitals over subsidizing a radio station.