page_title: Washington State Convention Center
section_title: Second expansion
hierarchical_section_title: Washington State Convention Center / History / Second expansion
caption_attribution_description: The platforms of Convention Place station, a bus terminal in Seattle, Washington, seen from Boren Avenue
context_page_description: The Washington State Convention Center is a convention center in Seattle, Washington, United States. It consists of several exhibition halls and meeting rooms in buildings along Pike Street in Downtown Seattle. Part of the complex straddles Interstate 5 and connects with Freeway Park. The convention center was planned in the late 1970s and funded through $90 million in bonds issued by the state legislature.
  Construction began in September 1985 after delays in securing private funding; the complex opened on June 18, 1988. A major expansion began in 1999 and was completed in 2001, doubling the amount of exhibition space. A hotel and office tower were added, along with connections to the existing facility via a skybridge over Pike Street. At the site of the Convention Place transit station, located a block north of the original convention center, a second major expansion has been under construction since 2018 and is expected to open in 2022.
  The convention center's largest annual events include PAX West, Emerald City Comic Con, Sakura-Con, and the Northwest Flower and Garden Show.
context_section_description: A second major expansion of the convention center planned to double the amount of exhibition space with a new building on the site of the Convention Place transit station, was proposed in 2008 at a cost of $766 million. The convention center board proposed an appropriation of $15 million in hotel tax revenue to be used to acquire options on land needed for the project. The state legislature rejected the appropriation in May 2009, effectively putting the project on hold.
  The proposal was revived in 2012 and expanded to include two triangular blocks to the north of the transit station, then occupied by a car dealership. The convention center proposed a 1.2-million-square-foot (110,000 m²) expansion with 310,000 square feet (29,000 m²) of exhibition space and several office or hotel towers built by co-developers. The convention center board acquired the dealership at Olive Way and Boren Avenue for $56.5 million in January 2014, condemned a property on Howell Street in March 2015, and paid $6.6 million to Sound Transit in October 2015 for the last property outside of the transit station. A preliminary agreement with King County to acquire the Convention Place transit station for $147 million was signed in November 2015 and finalized in June 2017 for a total cost of $162 million.
  LMN Architects was selected as the lead architect of the project. Pine Street Group was named the co-developer and project manager for the convention portion and the associated private development. The convention center proposed a modified plan centered around a five-story building housing the exhibition hall, several meeting spaces, retail space, a large ballroom, a rooftop garden, and 800 parking spaces. The  150,000-square-foot (14,000 m²) exhibition hall would be located below street level and feature skylights and publicly-accessible spaces, including a high lobby on 9th Avenue. The building would also cantilever over a small section of Interstate 5 at the intersection of Pine Street and Boren Avenue. The northern blocks of the site would have underground truck loading ramps and a pair of high-rise towers: a 30-story tower with 428 apartments and a 16-story office building. The $1.4 billion project was scheduled to begin construction in 2017 and open in 2020, adding 440,000 square feet (41,000 m²) of usable space—approximately double the current convention center's interior space. It is planned to be funded using revenue from development rights, the countywide hotel-motel tax, and a proposed tax on short-term rental services like Airbnb.
  Skanska–Hunt were initially chosen as the project's general contractors but were removed from the project in March 2016. They sued the convention center and Pine Street Group for wrongful termination of the contract. The lawsuit was settled for a payment of $7.8 million. The convention center hired a joint venture of Lease Crutcher Lewis and Clark Construction as the project's new general contractor. Due to delays in receiving city approval and permits, construction was pushed back to May 2018 and its cost increased to $1.7 billion. In May 2018, the city council approved the project's street vacation for Terry Avenue in exchange for $80 million in public benefits. These included funding for affordable housing, improvements to Freeway Park and nearby bicycle lanes, and a study into lidding portions of Interstate 5.
  Convention Place station was permanently closed on July 21, 2018, and demolition began shortly afterwards. On August 14, ground was broken on construction of the convention center expansion; the new building will be named "Summit", while the original convention center will be renamed to "Arch". The expanded convention center is scheduled to open in 2022. The contractors for the project will use a "billboarding" process that divides structure erection into zones to shorten construction of the convention center's structural components. Hudson Pacific Properties acquired the rights to the northeastern tower site on Boren Avenue and plans to build a 16-story office building that would open in late 2022.
  In
caption: The Convention Place transit station, which was demolished to make way for the convention center's second expansion
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