This deal needs to be more closely vetted by the public. Its a terrible return on assets, and a poor use of increasingly scarce urban land that has a very low-density jobs use at present. The 3,200 direct, "induced and indirect" jobs is a stretch. The direct jobs existing is more like 900, and those could just as easily be accommodated in Tacoma, a Port that, unlike Seattle, does not need a $100 million annual taxpayer subsidy for its operations. Alternative uses could include light manufacturing, lab space, office, retail, etc, and generate a couple hundred jobs per acre over 88 acres with any reasonable urban density. With this "deal", each one of those trucking jobs and longshoremen jobs that we are unwilling to lose to Tacoma is costing us a fortune. The Port exists to serve the economic development of the region, not the other way around.

"Under terms of a contract to come before the port commission Dec. 11, the port will pay Hanjin a one-time $4 million fee upon execution of the contract, add capital improvements of up to $35 million, accept a less-favorable rate structure, and hand over five cranes to Hanjin for $1 each."
Expensive deal reached to keep Hanjin Sh…

Good thing Hanjin wasn't proposing to play basketball or the deal would have all kinds of scrutiny by people like Peter Steinbrueck (not him, he's on their payroll, but people like him).

If we can't give them direct subsidies, let's sell them assets at ridiculous subsidy prices!

Problem for Seattle and Tacoma is everyone else cooperates, whereas we have a stupid rivalry subsidized by two ports that actually are covered under one port authority.

Hey Goldy; do you think the Port would have been able to keep some concessions, if we didn't have some shit bag hedge fund manager threatening to fuck up the logistics chain for T46? No, you wouldn't think of that. Because it doesn't jibe with your preconceived a priori emotional attachment to fucking basketball arenas and sucking up to politicians who do the same.

Oh, and Mr. Baker-- go crawl back under that rock please.

@4 -- arena or not, it'd make little difference, because the Port of Seattle is what it's been for decades: completely incompetent, mismanaged, and a giant sinkhole of cash that fucks up most everything it touches.

Seattle is getting destroyed by Tacoma because Tacoma is doing a better job. And now to avoid somebody else moving to Tacoma they're essentially taking property taxes and dumping them directly into the pockets of a giant shipping company. Great job!

For the life of me, I cannot understand why Seattleites are so attached to a handful of cushy crane-operator jobs that pay well over $100,000 a year and many more in horrendously polluting, short-haul trucking that pay slave wages and cause horrific congestion, all so we can race to the bottom with Tacoma over how much wasteful plastic shit we can import from China. Shit that will be in a landfill in Eastern Washington within months.

@4, keep paying clerks $150,000 a year and complain about "externalities" and see what that gets you.

@6 there aren't just six figure crane jobs on the line, my company would lose stable jobs if Hanjin left. it's already skinny in Seattle for shipping traffic, tugs, fuel barges, environmental firms all employ a decent amount of people at a living wage with most being good union jobs. My company would have to downsize 10 people to make sure they don't spill bunker oil into our puget sound. I know it isn't a lot of employees but ask them, I'm sure they think their jobs matter.
That and I don't want to move to Tacoma!
There is a whole other job force on the water that shipping supports.
Way to be a narrow minded landlubber!

@9: You can sell hot dogs and parking spaces in SoDo in ten years. Just thank Goldy, Mr. Baker and his shills for that.