Seattle City Council approves $700M KeyArena renovation
Sep 24, 2018, 3:21 PM | Updated: 5:25 pm
KeyArena. (File, AP Photo/Gregory Payan, File)
(File, AP Photo/Gregory Payan, File)
The Seattle City Council has unanimously approved the $700 million renovation of KeyArena.
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“This is just a great deal for the city, for the residents, for the businesses,” Councilmember Bruce Harrell told the council.
Monday’s vote paves the way for a future NHL franchise.
The Oak View Group will commit to the KeyArena for 39 years and plans to spend $40 million on transportation mitigation. The city says OVG will also give $10 million to Youthcare and pay for the relocation of businesses affected by the KeyArena renovation.
OVG announced earlier this year it had a NHL investment team led by David Bonderman and Jerry Bruckheimer (Seattle Hockey Partners). The group will give a presentation to the NHL executive committee on Oct. 2.
Just two weeks ago, KING5 reported that the city won’t allow KeyArena demolition to begin until December, when the NHL is expected to officially award Seattle a team. However, the city has indicated it might waive that prohibition under certain conditions.
“Among other things that are required of them before they can start demolition of KeyArena is they do need to essentially have a franchise established for Seattle with the NHL,” he said. “We don’t want to end up with an arena that’s partially demolished without the means to complete it.”
While it appears that this is yet another delay, documents show that pushing the demolition until December won’t necessarily alter completion by the October 2020 target, reports The Seattle Times.
