Sawant is absolutely right. Public land should be sold at market value, and this should have been done ten years ago. It's absolutely ridiculous that that land has sat empty for as long as it has, and for no good reason.

I wonder how much of this was done to preserve views from the Mayor's office.

When did Burgess take over as President?

"Including the affordable housing money is a bit misleading, considering that no matter who the city sells the lot to, any new development downtown will require affordable housing" <--- That's not true Heidi. If the city DIDN'T sell it or transferred it to SHA/OH ownership (which is what Sawant presumably wants), there would be no MHA money.

So it's worth, just 16 of Seattle's million dollar homes?

Among the many errors in this article, plans for this space began with Mayor Paul Schell Development would serve an integrated civic campus plan that incorporated the uphill courts/police building, the city hall building and the downhill space. The Stranger gets so much wrong, its readers should be forewarned. All of this could be learned from a simple google search.

The only way to know if Burgess's handwaving assumptions that $16 million + $5.7 million + ??? = $50 million is to sell the land at market value, and then pay ??? out of that, and see how much we have left over.

Also, how come the only person saying things like this is the loose cannon socialist firebrand?

Sawant argued the city shouldn't sell a property, particularly one in downtown Seattle's red-hot real estate market, without an appraisal. She also wondered whether upzoning the lot and doing away with the public plaza could increase its value and make the city more money.

Dudbros never get tired of bleating that Kshama doesn't get Econ 101, but from here it looks like she's the only one who does. Remember how crazy everyone said she was for beginning the minimum wage debate with that crazy sky high $15 number? How'd that turn out? Your first offer sets the upper boundary.

If Kshama Sawant been in charge of selling building she'd have put it on the block demanding not a penny less than $100 million and Frank Blethen & co would be throwing up their hands in exasperation at the crazy crazy crazy lady socialist who doesn't know any Econ 101. Cue the usual brouhaha. By they time they come to mop the blood off the floor Seattle would be reluctantly settling for $75 million and the dudebros would say it was Sawant's fault we didn't get more.

Whitebread asshole Tim Burgess gives it away for a paltry, pathetic $16 million and he's considered a respectable grown up. Kshama Sawant's only problem is that she has the confidence of a mediocre white man.

Huh. Economics professor gets economics.

Yadda yadda expensive fencing and all, why is it too hard to have a bidding process when you're talking fifty million smackers?

Phil in Seattle, those lofty plans all dissipated when the city engaged in the biggest corporate welfare giveaway in the history of Seattle: The acquisition of the Key Tower (a building that only government could love and/or fill) and the fire sale prices of Dexter Horton, The Arctic Club and the City Light Building. But I think we'll all agree that what we have now is vibrant, walkable and world-class.

There are times when I don't agree with Sawant's economics in a bubble, but she is spot-on regarding the sale of a public asset.

What was the mad rush to sell after years of inertia? A current (no more than 30 days old), completed appraisal should have been made public, and then let the bidding wars begin. A property on Broadway that just sold in August had 90 bids and sold for $14 million more than a very, very generous offer from a Seattle realtor that knows what the property is worth in a NORMAL world.

If I were on the Council, I would have been a second NO vote.

@5: How is anything in the article contradicted in your example so as to constitute an error? And you assert that there are "many errors" in the article. Can you support that with more than zero examples? I have no opinion on the accuracy of the article, but your assertion is not convincing or useful if you fail to support it.

I wish it had become a full-block park. That part of town needs a little breathing space (Courthouse Park doesn't work because it has a fucking loading dock opening onto it).

Bosa Development also built the luxury Insignia Towers, and they neglected to pay/the City didn't collect $3.4M that was owed for affordable housing....something CM O'Brien himself called "disappointing and embarrassing." http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news…

By all means, let it sit empty and have the city pay until that idiot sawant decides it's a good deal.

@9 Catalina Vel-DuRay: "...but I think we can all agree that what we have now is vibrant, walkable, and world class." Speaking as a Seattle born Washington native and former Seattle resident, I sure hope so. The Emerald City and all its quaint mom-and-pop single housing neighborhoods seem to have gone to the rich lately.

Auntie Grizelda dear, I would hope by now that you know what I mean when I refer to something as "vibrant, walkable, and world class" (basically "dismal, inconvenient and embarassingly provincial")