Port of Seattle raises red flags about SoDo arena

While the Mariners are taking plenty of heat for raising
concerns about a proposed new arena south of Safeco Field,
the Port of Seattle is also raising serious red flags
about the impact of the project on its operations.

“Our concern would be, what about the rest of the story.
What does that mean when you place an arena there in terms
of freight mobility and access to an from our terminals
and rail ramps and other areas people need to go on a day
to day basis?” asks Linda Styrk, Managing Director,
Seaport for the Port of Seattle.

In a letter to the Arena Advisory Committee tasked with
making an initial recommendation to local leaders, Styrk
warns the project puts thousands of jobs and billions of
dollars at risk.

“A new 20,000 seat arena could attract upward of 8,700
vehicles for each event. To be economically viable, the
new facility will need to host many large events in
addition to professional sports. We know that spectators
begin arriving for events well before the start time,
which potentially conflicts with cargo operations in an
area that already suffers from congestion,” Styrk writes
in the letter.

She says a huge question is what it would take and how
much it would cost to mitigate the impact and keep trains
and trucks moving through the area.

“The Lander Street overpass that is planned but not yet
funded would cost an estimated $180 million. Costly
intersection improvements, as well as neighborhood and
environmental mitigation resulting from increased auto
emissions, may be required […] The arena proposal does not
appear to make any provision for funding mitigation
efforts that will surely be required,” the letter says.

Styrk says the port operations and related businesses
support approximately 56,000 jobs and $2.5 billion
annually in business revenue across the region.

She’s encouraging local leaders to “more fully explore”
other potential sites including Seattle Center and the
Memorial Stadium area.

“There’s a lot of unanswered questions. We wish we knew
the answers to all those other questions so we could give
a sense of comfort to our customers who are currently here
so we can keep them here and keep these jobs here; and
until we have answers to those questions everyone’s going
to be really tentative,” she says.