Across the street from Seattle City Hall, a fenced-off pit has sat empty for 21 years, and the city still can’t say when — or whether — anyone will finally build something there. The lot at 3rd Avenue and Cherry Street has outlived two recessions, three developers and a campaign-finance scandal, and this year Seattle concluded that its current developer, Bosa Development, is in default of the 2017 agreement that gave the company the site.
A Civic Building Gone, Then a Void
The site once held the Seattle Public Safety Building, a 14-story tower completed in 1951 that housed police headquarters, health offices and a World War II memorial plaza before it was demolished in 2005, according to the Museum of History & Industry. Municipal services moved to the new Seattle Civic Center complex across Fourth Avenue, leaving the lot vacant — the start of a two-decade stretch during which, as KUOW reports, the lot across from City Hall has remained undeveloped since 2005.
In 2007, then-Mayor Greg Nickels’ administration struck a $25 million public-private deal with Triad Development to build a 43-story tower and a 30,000-square-foot public plaza on the site, but the plan stalled once the 2008 Great Recession hit, according to Post Alley. Contract extensions let Triad hold development rights for eight years without ever breaking ground, the outlet’s reporting shows.
A Scandal Ends the First Deal
Triad’s arrangement with the city collapsed for good in October 2015, after a company executive offered to make a negative ad campaign against city council candidate Jon Grant disappear if Grant dropped a tenant lawsuit challenging Triad’s permit extensions, KUOW reports. Grant was a council candidate and tenant advocate with an open lawsuit against Triad at the time, and the exchange amounted to an alleged quid pro quo tied to a Seattle City Council race, according to The Stranger. Seattle ended its contract with Triad once news of the exchange broke, and the city then sought a new developer for the stalled site.
That search led to Bosa Development, which took over the project after Triad became entangled in the scandal, per KUOW’s account. When the Seattle City Council approved transferring the property to Bosa in September 2017, the agreement required Bosa to pay $16 million in cash plus $5.7 million in affordable housing fees earmarked for the city’s Equitable Development Initiative, according to The Urbanist.
An Ambitious Tower, Then a Halt
Bosa’s approved plans, designed by James K.M. Cheng Architects, called for a 629-foot, 57-story crescent-shaped tower with more than 400 condominium units, ground-level retail and a 25,000-square-foot public plaza, per UrbanAsh’s reporting — a vision for a project now valued around $300 million, according to KUOW. Bosa had previously built the twin Insignia Towers in Belltown before taking on the Cherry Street site…