‘Is it worth it?’: Jake asks of the $1.5B Seattle Center upgrades after unanimous approval

The Seattle City Council recently unanimously approved upgrades for the 64-year-old Seattle Center’s infrastructure, which will cost roughly $1.5 billion.

Jake Skorheim and Spike O’Neill, co-hosts of “The Jake and Spike Show” on KIRO Newsradio, agreed that they’d both rather throw $1.5 billion toward upkeep on the Seattle Center rather than tear it all down and build several mixed-use high-rise buildings in its place.

“When you’re talking about what to do with a choice piece of real estate in basically the heart of Seattle, they had a couple of ways they could go here,” Spike said. “They could scrape it clear and put up a whole bunch of 12-story buildings, retail on the ground, living spaces above, or you could preserve some of Seattle’s history, a moment in time that was the Seattle Center. It’s so Art Deco, it’s what the future was projected to be in 1962. Have you ever seen The Jetsons? They literally used that cartoon for the designs.”

“Unfortunately, the future has fallen into disrepair,” Jake said. “Nobody goes there, I guess some people do, but not enough. It’s very cool-looking. I used to love it when I was a kid. Going down there, they had all those big arch-looking things.”

Jake, Spike skeptical as $1.5B facelift could swell to $2.5B with interest

Jake posed a question, considering that the bond interest could “balloon” the initial $1.5 billion investment to $2.5 billion, are the plans worth it to not build anything but solely modernize what’s there?

“The way the Seattle City Council spends money, [$1.5 billion] is a bargain,” Spike said. “But can we bring it in at that number? I’m good at that number.”

“Of course not,” Jake responded. “When’s the last time in the last 30 years they’ve brought anything in on budget or on time? In 1962, they brought it in for $69 million; in today’s dollars, that’s about $730 million. Here’s the thing: the new projected costs, not to build something but just to kind of fix what’s there, with the bond interest, that number balloons to $2.5 billion. My question to you, $2.5 billion just to modernize a lot of what’s there, is that worth it?”

Watch the full discussion in the video above

Listen to “The Jake and Spike Show” weekdays from noon to 3 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio 97.3