I've enjoyed many shows at the Showbox, but, well: private property. By the time you realize you want to curtail its use for something other than maximizing the return for the owner, it's probably too late for that particular property.

The "progressive" government of Seattle just can't say no to developers.

@2 I suspect that legally, they can't in this case.

Let's go to the LPB and determine it's historic value, then, asshole Strip Club Magnate with no sense of civic pride.

@6: really? is that how anything historic gets saved? is that how the Pike Place Market was saved?

It was privately owned by Joe Desimone prior to preservation. "When the maze of aging buildings was slated for demolition in the 1960s, architect Victor Steinbrueck rallied Seattle to “Save the Market.” Voters approved a 17-acre historic district on November 2, 1971, and the City of Seattle later established the Pike Place Market Preservation and Development Authority to rehabilitate and manage the Market’s core buildings."

Why mock the motivations of your (non-wealthy) fellow citizens who care about historic preservation? would you like to drown some kittens next?

@7, go back and read the paragraph that starts with "This is a pretty common tactic in preservation work." Note that Count Basie performed at Washington Hall, which is apparently the litmus test for music venues in this town.

@7: "Why mock the motivations of your (non-wealthy) fellow citizens who care about historic preservation?"

Um, I didn't read any mockery there, just a variant of the old phrase, "put your money where your mouth is." @6 was noting there's been no effort to raise any money to buy the building, even though that's common in these cases. (And as for "historic preservation," it's an old cinder-block building which was once a furniture store.)

$40M lawsuit, $5M in MHA fees gone, $M in annual property taxes gone... all to save a venue that is reviewed as "meh" and was already excluded from the historic zone.

Save the Showbox is a disaster.