Dori: Owner of the Showbox is right to sue thieving City of Seattle

The owner of the Showbox is filing a lawsuit against the City of Seattle for $40 million if the city messes up the sale that he has made to a Vancouver, B.C. investment company that wants to build a 40-story building on The Showbox site.

The City of Seattle has gotten right in the middle of this transaction with its Save the Showbox campaign. Now there’s only one problem with that — The Showbox site is not a historical site. A review of the site several years ago said that the building has no historical value. So what the city was doing was stealing private property from the owners of The Showbox.

The plan is to redraw the Pike Place Historical District to include The Showbox. There was no precedence for that move and no data to support it. But Councilmember Kshama Sawant has no problem stealing people’s private property, and neither do the other Socialists who run the Seattle City Council.

RELATED: Seattle government stealing the Showbox sets a dangerous precedent

After speaking with commercial real estate experts, I had come up with an estimate that The Showbox was worth between $30 million and $60 million. They are suing for $40 million, so I was right on the money. But the city is also stealing hundreds of millions from the taxpayers. The property taxes on those 40 stories of condos would throw off at least $6 million a year. Over the next 30 years, with appreciation, we’re talking about $250 million in property taxes. The City of Seattle is always crying poverty. And yet, here was a private sale that would have produced well over a quarter-billion dollars in tax revenue for the city over the next 30 years.

As I’ve said, I love The Showbox. I’ve been to a couple of shows there that I really enjoyed. But people’s musical memories are no justification to steal $40 million worth of real estate from a private owner. The only way that the Showbox can be saved is if all of the big-time musicians like Katy Perry and Eddie Vedder — who have played at The Showbox in the past and signed a letter to save The Showbox — want to pool their money to buy and preserve it.

We cannot tolerate our government having that kind of contempt for private property rights because nothing is more essential for a free republic than private property rights. Our city council got way out of control on this one.

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