Seattle#

Two convention facilities, two blocks apart, in the geographic center of the city’s contiguous walkable core. $1.88 billion in outstanding bonds. Debt service nearly doubles in 2030.

Facilities#

• The Arch — 705 Pike Street. Opened 1988. 236,700 sq ft exhibit. Freeway lid over I-5. ~115 event days/year.
• The Summit — 900 Pine Street. Opened 2023. 573,770 sq ft total. $1.9B. North America’s first high-rise convention center.

Reference#

• Finance — Bond schedule, lodging tax, operating performance, reserves, debt service cliff
• Construction — Summit construction economics: $960M Clark/Lewis contract, 6,000 workers, $267M tax capture, IMPLAN methodology
• Labor — Nine unions, Aramark contract (expires Jan 2027), rate card transparency, operations workforce
• Governance — PFD structure, board composition, state backstop, Aramark contract, Visit Seattle contract
• Corridor — Pike/Pine walking tour, 920 Olive Way, Washington 1000, neighborhood transformation
• Players — SCC leadership, PFD board, Visit Seattle, DSA, bond underwriters
• Timeline — 1981 site selection through 2030 balloon, every dated event from primary sources

Primary Sources#

This almanac draws on public records including:

• Audited financial statements — Moss Adams LLP, published at seattlecc.com/governance/financial-reports/
• Bond official statements — 2018 issuance ($1.0B) and 2021 refunding ($544M), from EMMA
• PFD board meeting minutes — January 2018 through 2025 (2018–2022 downloaded from Wayback Machine archive; 2023–2025 from seattlecc.com)
• King County Assessor / Recorder — Property records for 920 Olive Way and adjacent parcels
• Walking tour observations — 33 stops, dated photography, at commons.conventioncityseattle.com/pike-pine

All factual claims resolve to these sources. Where data is estimated or unverified, it is noted.