Seattle union fails to hurt developer, ends up killing affordable housing

A local union tried to disrupt and alter a huge development in Seattle &#8212 and they failed.

Thankfully, they failed. They were told to take a hike.

The developers at RC Hedreen Company have been trying to build a $400 million, 45-story project on the Denny Triangle.

It’s going to be a mixed-use building that would include a hotel with more than 1,200 rooms. It would be the largest hotel in the city.

But Unite Here Local 8 wanted to force the developer to essentially only give the hotel space to a hotel operator who would hire union employees.

The developer said “no.” That’s unfair to the employees who may not want to join the union.

So the Local 8 filed complaints with the city. And in their silly complaint they accused the planning department, according to The Seattle Times, of “assuming the role of project advocate, apologist and process manipulator.”

Ironic that the Local 8 would accuse anyone of being a manipulator, right?

“This has been a pretty bogus scenario from day one with the union using these delay tactics to force us to the table,” David Thyer, president of Hedreen, told the Times.

So the appeal went in front of the city’s hearing examiner and she sided with the developer, against the union, saying Local 8 failed to prove their claims.

Now, the developer can start building.

What are they building?

So this is a huge win for the developers, for business, for logic, and a big loss for a manipulative and disingenuous union trying to line their own pockets with money they didn’t earn by taking from low-income workers.

But this was also a huge loss for affordable housing.

You see, in this development, they were also going to have some affordable housing units. Up to 160 apartments for lower-income residents.

In their original plans, they were going to apply for an “alley vacation” which essentially means they were trying to get permission from the city to take over an alleyway for business purposes.

But because the Local 8 were being so relentless in their delays and complaints, the developer dropped that part of the plan because they didn’t want to have to deal with city politics. It appears they suspected that the Local 8 would lobby the union-supporting city council to reject the alley vacation permit.

Now maybe this win for the developers changes things on that end, but I suspect they’re moving on with this new plan, sans affordable housing that the union killed, but with a huge hotel that will bring money to the city.

It’s not the only large-scale project in the city, according to a mid-year report by the Downtown Seattle Association.