A decommissioned Boeing 747 fuselage is now literally wedged into Seattle’s skyline, hanging between two nearly finished towers at the WB1200 project in Denny Triangle. The polished aluminum shell sits about 14 feet above the galleria floor, and crews have been adding new exterior panels that are already reshaping the feel of the plaza below. Developers say the plane is being built out as occupiable space inside the podium that links Stewart Street to Denny Way.
Project materials from Westbank frame the fuselage as a deliberate nod to Seattle’s aerospace roots, a retired jet reborn as public art and workspace. Renderings show the 747 stripped of its wings and threaded through a three-story galleria that is supposed to pull pedestrians through the project’s retail base instead of just past it.
How Crews Reassembled A Jumbo In Downtown Seattle
To get the jumbo downtown, crews first dismantled the retired aircraft in Southern California, then loaded the pieces onto flatbed trucks and hauled 39 body sections north for reassembly, according to The Seattle Times. JTM Construction told reporters the fuselage was purchased from ComAv at the Victorville aircraft facility, and workers have now installed nearly half of the exterior panels. Onsite crews estimated the outside of the fuselage would be finished by next month, a rare clear milestone on a project that has spent years in limbo.
Project Past: Delays And Liens
The two-tower development at 1200 Stewart kicked off construction in 2018, then ran headfirst into pandemic disruptions, contractor disputes and a long line of subcontractor claims, as reported by the Puget Sound Business Journal. Early marketing dangled a Live Nation venue, a Trader Joe’s and a slate of high-end amenities under the towers, but shifting timelines and provider disputes pushed deliveries back and complicated leasing.
County records show dozens of lien claims hit the site between 2019 and 2025, ranging from smaller subcontractor bills to multi-million-dollar fights. The record includes a $93.5 million claim Graham filed in June 2022 that was released within days, and a $50.1 million lien from December 2022 that took six months to clear, according to The Seattle Times. Those payment battles helped trigger a lender-led recapitalization, and Toronto-based OpTrust says it has now fully recapitalized the project and is pushing it toward the finish line.
What The Plane Will Be Used For
Westbank originally sketched out the roughly 2,000-square-foot interior of the aircraft as workspace for its own Seattle office, though the final tenant plan has not been nailed down publicly. Coverage in the Puget Sound Business Journal detailed podium-level amenities that once included a cycle club with electric bikes, a resident daycare, smart-home features and rooftop clubhouses and pools. Those kinds of experiential perks are a big reason the suspended fuselage was pitched as a flashy leasing magnet, even as construction schedules kept sliding…