Seattle: The Summit (900 Pine Street)#

Opened: January 2023. Exhibit space: 149,200 sq ft (573,770 sq ft total). Walk Score: 98. Cost: $1.9 billion.

North America’s first high-rise convention center, one block northeast of the Arch.

What Was Here Before#

A Honda auto dealership ($56.5M, purchased 2014), Convention Place bus station ($275M, purchased 2017), and other commercial buildings. Part of the historic Pike/Pine “Auto Row.”

Convention Place was the northern terminus of the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel (opened September 15, 1990). It was permanently closed July 21, 2018 to make way for Summit construction.

Design#

Metropolis Magazine profiled the Summit as breaking the convention center mold:

• Vertical stacking instead of horizontal sprawl: six convention levels in a high-rise. The traditional convention center is a superblock; the Summit is a tower.
• Street-level integration: a “Mixing Zone” with retail and public art along Pine Street. A glass-enclosed atrium stair broadcasts interior activity outward.
• Transparency: expansive windows and city views from meeting rooms, eliminating “the windowless cave” problem.

Metropolis described it as “situated at the nexus of seven of Seattle’s most densely populated neighborhoods, helping to knit together Capitol Hill, First Hill, and downtown.”

The Numbers#

• $1.9 billion construction cost ($300M over the original $1.6B budget)
• 573,770 sq ft of meeting and events space added
• Combined campus: 1.01 million sq ft, 139 meeting rooms (up from 70)
• LEED Platinum certified
• 185 events booked for 2026
• Operating revenue: $66.5M in 2025 (150.7% increase from 2022, 70.7% from 2019)
• First positive net operating income since 2019: $1.4M in 2025

Dual Facility#

Seattle is one of three cities in this almanac with two convention facilities in the same urban core (the others are Boston with Hynes + BCEC, and Barcelona with Fira Montjuïc + Fira Gran Via). In each case, the newer facility is larger and purpose-built. The older facility occupies more central, walkable real estate.

The SCC’s stated rationale for operating both: “we can have one running full tilt with load-in happening at the other.” The combined campus is 1.01 million sq ft with 139 meeting rooms.

See also: Seattle Arch | Dispatch: Shadows on the Wall