Washington’s Department of Commerce has signed a lease to take over Seattle’s iconic Pacific Tower for the next 30-years.
The formal signing Tuesday came despite serious concerns about the cost and terms of the deal.
The man who actually signed the lease for the former Amazon.com headquarters is Dan McConnon, deputy director at Washington’s Department of Commerce.
“My hand hasn’t stopped shaking yet," he says. "It’s pretty daunting.”
Daunting because for the next three decades, the state has agreed to maintain and operate the 80-year old building and fill it with tenants. About half the space will be for a community college health training program. The goal is to sublet the other 100,000 square feet to health-related non-profits.
“It would be so much easier if the college was taking the whole building or we had two big tenants," says McConnon. "But because we’ve elected to follow this concept that the legislature asked it’s a much more complicated deal.”
Democratic Speaker of the House Frank Chopp is a chief architect of the plan to turn Pacific Tower into a health innovation center with the lease proceeds going to support low-income healthcare.
McConnon says he’s pleased that at this point the level of interest from potential subtenants exceeds the available square footage.
