A King County Superior Court judge has delayed the Showbox lawsuit’s trial from September to March of next year, giving the city more time to decide if they want to appeal an earlier ruling while preservationists scramble to find a way to privately save the venue.
The latest trial delay comes a month after King County Superior Court Judge Patrick Oishi delivered a blow to the city and preservationists after he nullified an ordinance temporarily including the venue in the nearby Pike Place Market Historical District. Oishi’s ruling called the city ordinance “an illegal spot zone” that violated Showbox owner Roger Forbes’ right to procedural due process. Oishi has not yet ruled on a separate claim made by Forbes, that the City Council violated an ‘appearance of fairness’ statute, nor has the judge determined what kind of damages the city owes Forbes.
Dan Nolte, a spokesperson for the Seattle City Attorney’s office, said those issues need to be resolved before the city can decide if they want to appeal Oishi’s earlier ruling.
“The case needs to be finished before we can appeal it,” Nolte said. “So we are waiting on the judge to rule on appearance of fairness and damages, and then at that point the city will discuss whether to appeal.”
Aaron Pickus, a spokesperson for Forbes’ company, 1426 1st Avenue, said the trial was delayed so the two sides can have more time to collect documents to assess the damages allegedly caused by the council ordinance.
“This was done to allow more time for discovery regarding damages,” Pickus said.
The Forbes lawsuit, filed in September of last year, called for over $40 million in damages after he claimed the city’s action thwarted a deal to bulldoze the venue and replace it with a 44-story apartment building. News of a developer’s intent to bulldoze the venue broke in July of last year. By August, the City Council created a temporary expansion of the nearby Pike Place Market Historical District. The historical district ends about 100 feet away from the nightclub’s front door and the venue’s building was originally built in 1917 as an extension of the Pike Place Market.
As the City Council’s effort to save the venue goes up in flames, separate attempts are still pushing ahead. The nonprofit Historic Seattle group successfully won the venue landmark status from the city’s Landmark Preservation Board (LPB) last week. The LPB is now beginning to set various controls on how the property can be changed, which may hamper redevelopment, but the landmark status is not considered a guarantee of preservation. Forbes can try to get out of the landmark status by arguing that saving the dated building is too high of a financial burden. Landmark status also does not dictate how the building is used, and Forbes has made it clear that he has no intention of keeping music on the 80-year-old music venue’s historic stage. He told the current leaseholder of the building, AEG, that he will not renew their lease when it expires in 2024.
Historic Seattle is also attempting to buy the building from Forbes, although they have yet to identify where they can get the tens of millions of dollars it would cost to do so.
Forbes’ lawsuit could be settled out of court before 2020, but Pickus said those conversations are not currently active.
“Litigation continues and there are no active conversations regarding any potential settlement,” Pickus said.
Nolte said the city was in contact with Forbes but declined to describe those conversations.
“We do not comment on that, just because it allows for a free-flowing dialogue,” Nolte said.
