Author: Randy Corman

The Renton City Council should thoroughly review how Renton manages our city facilities to return the best value to our residents and businesses.  Lately, it feels like our city facilities are being treated as if they are disposable.  With replacement buildings now costing in the tens of millions of dollars, our city facilities should be utilized to their fullest and managed with respect.

It’s been two years since the City of Renton evicted the popular “Landing Gear Works” from their leased manufacturing building and hangar at Renton Airport.  The decades-old landing gear manufacturing company specializes in small-airplane components,  and their operation provided desirable economic diversity to our airport.  The eviction eliminated dozens of living wage jobs, sacrificed city B&O and sales tax revenue on a multi-million dollar business, and left aircraft owners queuing for support for their aircraft products while the Landing Gear Works hurriedly relocated their operations to other cities.

Two years after this eviction began, nothing has been done with the city’s now-empty buildings.

The eviction process began when a roof replacement was needed on the manufacturing building that was partially leased by the Landing Gear Works.  The City (which owned the building)  would neither pay for the repair themselves nor grant the tenant reasonable lease terms to accomplish the repair.   The dispute became exacerbated when the city realized they had made a multi-month billing error, and then demanded tens of thousands of dollars in surprise back-rent from the Landing Gear Works at the same time as they were refusing to address the roof.

While a negotiated settlement could have quickly resolved these issues, the Renton City Council (which has responsibility and authority for leases) never publicly discussed a possible resolution, either among themselves or with the tenants.  The Council remained silent during a series of Council meetings as the tenants made repeated heartfelt pleas for a negotiated settlement.

When it ultimately became apparent that the Council would not intervene, the airport manager pressed the tenants to work around-the-clock to meet a strict move-out deadline; the tenants used floodlights and worked into the nights, to clear the buildings– as if it was one of the City’s biggest emergencies.

But following the midnight move out, the city has let the buildings sit vacant and abandoned in the year-and-a-half since.  The message apparently was “Hurry up and get out, so that we can leave TWO MORE City of Renton buildings vacant.”

While a new roof might have cost six months of lease revenues, it would have kept years of lease payments and taxes flowing into the city and preserved an important Renton business.

Eventually the manufacturing building (and maybe the hangar) will be demolished and replaced, but there is still a long process to do so, and it could have hosted a viable, revenue/tax-generating business in the years leading up to its replacement.  We certainly don’t want private property owners leaving abandoned buildings all over our city, and there is absolutely no reason the City should be modeling this bad behavior.

The Landing Gear Works buildings have joined a long list of city buildings that have been temporarily vacated or completely abandoned by Renton in recent years, including:

The Former Chamber of Commerce Building (left vacant, now demolished)

The Renton Historical Museum (Historical Society kicked out, now sitting empty with unclear future)

Rainier Flight Services flight school building at Renton airport (school kicked out, building sitting empty)

The Pavilion Event Center (empty for over a year, now getting a taxpayer-funded $10 million conversion into a privately-managed market)

Carco Theater (flooded by Cedar River in December, activities cancelled as flood-damage is  remediated)

200 Mill Avenue- former City Hall (recently flooded by broken 16-inch water main, repair costs and future currently unknown)

The Landing Gear Works hangar and nearby manufacturing building (thriving business kicked out, now left vacant)

This protracted, wasteful vacancy of the Landing Gear Works buildings was 100 percent predictable.   In a blog post two years ago I identified many errors in the Mayor’s official statement regarding Renton’s airport management at that time. Many topics were errantly discussed in that memo, leaving me seriously concerned about Renton’s airport leadership. For example, the Mayor asserted that business jet operations would cease each day when the tower closed, and I corrected that (per FAA policy) jet operations would continue 24 hours per day  which they have.    The Mayor’s equally erroneous comments concerning the Landing Gear Works in that memo are shown in italics below, with my corrections underlined and linked to source data.  (This exchange is excerpted from the April 2024 blog post):

5. Is there a business leaving the Renton Municipal Airport?

The City of Renton is moving through the legal process of eviction of a tenant for a long-standing non-payment of rent. The occupied buildings in question were originally scheduled for demolition in 2015. The buildings occupied by the Landing Gear Works, the old tower building and hangars, have never been scheduled for demolition. 

The occupation of these buildings were at a deeply discounted rate, with an understanding that any repairs needed would be at the expense of the tenant. This statement is false. Landing Gear Works hangers are priced like all other Renton airport hangars.  The old tower building was leased for the highest rate the Airport could get after it had been vacant for months.Airport management had responsibility for maintenance of common areas and the tower of the office building through most years of the tenancy.

The natural end of the lease was slated for July 2024, we have moved forward with a lease termination date of March 31, 2024 in light of nonpayment. This more accurately would say “in light of an ongoing rent dispute that began when we improperly billed the tenant, then ignored his concerns while we played musical chairs with our airport managers, and finally denied him and his employees their First Amendment rights to communicate with their elected officials.”

It is the responsibility of the city to maintain safe, functional and market-rate buildings for future tenants. It IS the city’s responsibility, and the city has unreasonably tried to get out of it by arguing that the building is going to be replaced in the future.  It’s also the city’s responsibility to ensure that private buildings are safe, and they are failing in many places.

One of the core pillars of our city administration is to communicate regularly and clearly with plain facts and direct language.  The Council, not the Administration, is responsible for leases under state law.  The council members have never publicly discussed this lease issue with each other, or communicated in any way with the tenants.  An attempt to reach out was made by one council member, and was apparently shut down by the city attorney.  This complete lack of council involvement and communication is shockingly different than council behavior and actions in the past. There were many steps where a collaborative discussion between the tenant and  the airport manager or council members would have quickly and peacefully resolved this dispute.

(Reminder: The full Mayor’s statement and my responses can be found here.)

Author’s note: I’ve recently written two blog entries recommending that the City of Renton investigate the way it bids and manages Public Works contracts due to recent severe overruns.  This is a story about a third public works project that experienced a 50% overrun in the same timeframe (i.e. three over-budget projects all required significant additional funding within a two week period. )  While one overrun might be an unfortunate anomaly, twice indicates a trend, and three times feels like it could be a new normal.

On February 9 the Renton City Council was asked to approve final expenditures for an office remodel project at Renton airport that exceeded the budget by over 50%.  The project provided refurbished office space for an increase in the number of staff managing the Renton airport.

According to city documents, “the main contributor for the escalated costs was HAZMAT remediation throughout and repair that was unforeseen prior to demolishing the interior walls and ceiling.”

While safely dealing with hazardous materials like asbestos and lead are important, some of these materials could have been expected in a 1950’s era commercial building.  And it seems like some preliminary investigation could have revealed their presence in advance.  In future budgeting and bidding processes, it would make sense to explore for these materials and budget in advance for these contingencies.

With regard to the unforeseen repairs, contractors will tell you repairs are inevitable when remodeling an older building.  Most Public Works contracts carry a 10% contingency to cover for unexpected repairs or other work, and that is typically sufficient.  It’s hard to imagine that reframing or redecking a portion of a small one-story building should exceed the 10% contingency for this project.

The original contract amount was $679,000.  The final amount was $1,016,647.  This amounts to a 50% overrun.

When overruns climb this high, it can become impossible to determine whether the city truly got the best deal during the bidding process.  We’ll never know if the second or third place bidder might have been less expensive overall… there is no way to know.

The previous two blogs discussing recent Public Works cost overruns where for the Williams/Wells which needed $1,000,000 additional funding on February 9 and went over budget by 43%, and Rainier Avenue Project with required $370,000 additional funding on January 27th and was over budget by 29%.

Overrunning the budget on projects can happen even with solid planning.  But  it seems like there is room for improvement in estimating Public Works projects, and the City Council should consider an after-action review to find these opportunities.

On February 23rd, Renton City Council changed the zoning on nine sites in Renton to 40 units per acre.  Most of these sites were previously zoned for 10, 14 or 20 units per acre.  Since they are largely already developed, its expected that they will be slow to redevelop.

However residents should be aware that they can now be legally developed at 40 units per acre. And since they are within a mile of a transit stop, the parking requirement may be as little as one car per unit, or even less.

I’ve included the details for Sites 2-9 below the cut, as well as the ordinance that was approved.

See the information for sites 2-9 by clicking below:

Continue reading →

The Williams/Wells two-way street conversion was completed over a three year span from 2019 to 2022.  The work included intersection improvements and new utilities and sidewalks on sections of Williams and Wells,  as well as sections of South Second and South Third Streets. The project suffered several long delays, primarily from an evolving work statement and pandemic-era material and labor shortages. Our long-time Public Works Director retired in February 2020, and the project leadership went to Martin Pastucha, Renton’s current Public Works Director.

As the project overran the schedule, the costs ballooned.  The contractors began submitting dozens of change orders to cover the changing project requirements, and cover their expenses that came from delays they felt were outside their control.

In late 2021, two representatives from the prime contractor, Cascade Civil Construction, attended (via Zoom) a Renton City Council Meeting to let the Council know that they did not feel that change orders were being approved quickly enough.

In 28 years on Council, this was a first for me; I didn’t remember ever having seen a contractor attend a Council Meeting to complain about slow approval of change orders.  After the meeting I was informed by staff that the issue was a misunderstanding, and would soon be handled. (I was only on Council for three more months before my final term came to a close.)

The change orders continued piling up into 2022.  While the initial agreed contract amount was $7,733,422, sixty-six total change orders increased it to $10,424,543, a 35% increase.

But it was not over even after the construction dust cleared.  Cascade Civil Construction and the City of Renton fell into a dispute over an additional half-million to one-million in costs, and both sides began paying attorneys.  Renton employed Perkins Coie in addition to paying City attorney staff.  Both sides finally hashed out the final Change Order number 67 at a settlement conference, which will bring the contract to a close.

At the February 9 Council Meeting (three weeks ago), the Council approved this $602,390 change order, along with approving $304, 826 recently paid on the contract.  There are also other fees associated with the settlement, including attorneys fees and recording fees, which added up to accrued 2025/2026 costs of 1.25 million dollars.  By my calculations, the amount going to Cascade Civil Construction will bring their total up to $11,026,923, or 43 percent over the original contract amount.

In another recent blog post I described how 56 change orders on the Rainier Avenue Project took it 29% over budget, and recommended Renton perform an after-action review to find ways to reduce these change orders on future projects. The Williams/Wells project could be included in this review.

Below the cut I’ve posted the agenda bill and settlement documents that the Council approved for Williams/Wells at the February 9 meeting.

Continue reading →

Even while the owners of Renton’s Garden Plaza have been demolishing the three-story 500 Park Avenue building and unveiling plans for it’s replacement, the seven-story building on the site continues to be a danger.

The City has told the public that this property has been secured, and that there are workers in this building preparing it for demolition. The City has said they are monitoring progress daily.  But a “Renton Responds” complaint filed last week leaves doubt.

Unless the workers are throwing drawers through plate glass windows on Park Ave (probably not), there appears to be a continuing presence of intruders who are putting motorists and pedestrians in danger with thrown objects.  Unauthorized occupants also continue to put the city in danger of fire, since the seven-story building lacks its required fire protection systems.  And they put themselves (and potentially their emergency rescuers) in danger, as open elevator shafts and other hazards on the site put anyone at risk who has not had site briefings and is not wearing OSHA-specified protective equipment.

I’ve seen Renton residents threatened with $100 per day fines for such minor transgressions as not cutting their lawn for a few weeks or not painting over someone else’s graffiti on their fence for a few days.  For these small (non-safety) code compliance actions to be taken seriously in the future, the city must demonstrate they won’t continue to show favoritism to an out-of-town property owner who lets broken windows rain down on our public streets and sidewalks.

In my second term on Renton City Council I helped tip the scales in a 4-3 vote to purchase a car dealership in downtown Renton, and build the Piazza Park and Pavilion Event Center.  All seven councilmembers and the Mayor were soon on board, creating the beautiful garden-style Piazza Park Renton has been enjoying for the past 25 years.  We tore out the dealership parking lot, and added pretty stained-concrete patios, lawns, trees, shrubs and benches. We incorporated two impressive water features into the new park: a formal cascading fountain and a 40-foot babbling stream.  We eventually acquired the aging sporting goods store as well, giving us space for Gateway Park and food trucks, and room for another future building which several of us thought might be a public arts and crafts studio and market.

On May 14, 1997 the Seattle Times published an article titled  “Is Jet City Finally Taking Off? — Projects Bringing New Look To Blue-Collar Hub”

“Renton, the little city with industrial shoulders on Lake Washington’s southern shore, suddenly is on the verge of coolness.”….“To help, the city is building a 1 1/2-acre plaza in the heart of town scheduled for completion next spring. The Piazza Project, at Burnett Avenue South and South Third Street, will anchor downtown businesses and provide a focal point with benches and trees, a fountain and amphitheater.  In addition, the city will redevelop a 15,000-square-foot building on the site for possible use as a public market or festival and banquet hall.”

We also remodeled the dealership showroom into the Pavilion Event Center with the help of Mithun Architects, the award-winning firm that designed REI’s flagship store in Seattle.  The design highlighted the historic old-growth wooden bow-string roof trusses, that gave the room unobstructed space, and we surrounded the 12,000-square-foot open space on three sides with unobstructed glass. New glass “garage-style doors” could be opened by rolling them up in the summer, creating indoor-outdoor pedestrian flow.  Mithun helped us tear out the cement-slab floor, and excavate a two-foot deep crawl space in the building that allowed us to distribute conditioned air throughout the building and run electrical and plumbing, without visually impacting the open space. We topped the crawlspace with carpeted “plenum floor panels” that distributed air throughout, and could be lifted for easy maintenance of the system below. The event center brought tens of thousands of visitors per year to our downtown, many of them for the first time.

Today, the Piazza and Gateway Park are closed and torn up for construction of a mini soccer pitch, the addition of a million-dollar jumbotron  TV, removal of the water features, a modest “log-pile” playspace, the removal of  77% of the trees in the Piazza, and the addition of more Piazza pavement.  I’m personally not a fan of these changes. I actually feel like they are taking us backwards.

The Pavilion is also being changed, along with the Piazza.  The engineered plenum floor has been thrown away, the crawl space has been filled in with gravel, and a new cement floor has been poured.  Partition walls are being added, and HVAC equipment and ducting is being installed in the bow trusses.  The building is looking more like it did when the car dealer had it. It will host a small meeting room and still-unknown collection of retailers and venders (Hot-Dog-on-a-Stick is shown in one city chart).

All we would have to do is park some cars for sale in the Piazza, play an advertisement on the Jumbotron, and we will have come full circle.

While I would not have chosen these changes, they are well underway, so I can only hope they turn out to be popular long-term.  I ask our Public Works Department and elected officials to dedicate the time, energy and perseverance to making sure their changes are improvements, and that taxpayers get real value for the $12.8 million we are investing.  Maybe one day I’ll decide they were a good idea, but I’m certainly not convinced of that yet.

In a recent blog entry I linked to the Federal  “Terms and Conditions” that Renton committed to when the city accepted a $1.5 million Federal grant to remodel the Pavilion building from an event center to a market place.

The Federal document includes a commitment by Renton to help any displaced businesses with relocation costs (on page 12).  This payment could be actual costs, or a lump sum up to $53,200, at the option of the eligible business.

Rain City Catering (King County’s 2024 “Minority-Owned Small business of the Year) was running their event business in the Pavilion for about thirteen years, and then told they would need to vacate because the City was going to renovate the Pavilion into a market.

I contacted one of the partners in Rain City Catering, and he said he does not remember being offered or receiving any relocation assistance.  When I asked him how much he thought they had lost, he said the impact of the displacement of their business left them with canceled and lost business opportunities in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, and an abundance of expensive equipment and furnishings that they have had to dispose of at surplus (garage-sale) prices.  They have been looking (without assistance) for a new facility, and have not found one.

While I’m not an attorney, I can read regulations.  My reading of the referenced federal rules suggests that Rain City Catering should have been considered eligible for compensation.  There was a woman-owned “Night Market” operating in the Pavilion, and it’s possible the owner of that business should receive compensation as well.

The City might claim that the Rain City Catering lease expired, and that is why they were displaced.  But that would distort the decision-making record and the timing of the notice to vacate. Rain City Catering’s lease expired specifically because the city was  negotiating a rehabilitation and new use for the building. The applicable regulations suggest that any person who occupies the real property and is in lawful occupancy on the date that negotiations begin for a new federally-funded use “are presumed to be entitled to relocation payments and other assistance set forth in this part…”   They also say evictions can not be “undertaken for the purpose of evading the obligation to make available the payments and other assistance set forth in this part.

Since I’m not a lawyer I’m going to leave  interpretation of the applicable regulations to the readers.  I’ve excerpted some of the key language from the Terms and Conditions of the grant Renton accepted, and the underlying federal regulation that are referenced in the grant and cover displaced businesses.  I recommend that anyone who feels they have been unfairly displaced by a federal project consider consulting with an attorney to learn what your options might be.  (Click below for the details of the regulations)

Continue reading →

A quick check of public real estate listings shows commercial buildings in Renton, many of them decades old,  are being offered for lease rates of $20-$38 per square foot.

But Renton City Council is being asked to lease our  newly renovated Pavilion building for $5 per square foot.  The rate would rise to $15 over five years, and then 3% annually after that. Since commercial rates will also be increasing 3% per year, the Renton Pavilion will remain at about 50% market rate.

If this building was going to host a non-profit or publicly-owned “Public Market,” this lease rate would be considered highly charitable, but probably legal.  But apparently the city plan is to have a private company rent the building for this give-away price, and then let the private company keep the profits for themselves.

Such an arrangement looks like it violates Washington’s constitution, by using public funds to support a private business.

The fact that the “Renton Market” sounds a lot like a desirable “Public Market” does not fix the issue.

RCW 35.92.040  gives cities Authority to acquire and operate public markets, but the city or a public corporation the city creates is supposed to operate them:

“A city or town may also construct, acquire, and operate public markets and cold storage plants for the sale and preservation of butter, eggs, meats, fish, fruits, vegetables, and other perishable provisions. Whenever the words “public markets” are used in this chapter and the public market is managed in whole or in part by a public corporation created by a city, the words shall be construed to include all real or personal property located in a district or area designated by a city as a public market and traditionally devoted to providing farmers, crafts vendors and other merchants with retail space to market their wares to the public.”

Since the City or a public agency is not operating the Renton Market, it’s no more eligible for public funding than any other business that residents might want in Renton, like a Trader Joe’s, or Whole Foods or Puget Consumers Co-op.  As much as we would like more food choices, Renton and other cities are not allowed to subsidize private companies to get them to locate here.

This Pavilion project started out in 2019 with no subsidy offered.  The Request for Proposals (RFP) made it clear that Renton would entertain proposals from private developers to make improvements to the Pavilion, paid for by the developer, in exchange for a longer lease; the developers would pay market-rate rent.  The subsidies and city-funded tenant improvements were added after the RFP bid was selected.

Taxpayer subsidies of a privately-owned “public market” have not been meaningfully discussed in open-public meetings. A true “Public Market” could be a valuable asset for the city, but the current arrangement does not have the transparent public ownership that a Public Market requires. At Monday’s Committee of the Whole, several Council Members spoke to their desire to see certain types of businesses included in the “Renton Market,” only to be told that their suggestions would be forwarded to the (for-profit) “operator” who  may or may not choose to pursue the Council suggestions.  Council was also told the operator has not yet signed a lease with the city, even while tax money is being used to customize the building to meet the operator’s desires.  This arrangement is unacceptable and should not be getting taxpayer subsidies.

Renton taxpayers are paying about $12.8 million to alter the Pavilion and the adjacent Piazza (which will provide dining space to the Pavilion.) Documents submitted to the City  with the RFP proposal show the “operator” of the market predicting a combined loss of about $500,000 over the first three years, breaking even in year 4, then recovering all his losses and making a profit by the 6th year.  He estimated increasing profitability after that, surpassing $300,000 in year 7, and blossoming to over $400,000 per year by the tenth year.  He would then be eligible for two five-year lease extensions which could bring him another $4 million in profits, or more.

But it would take 70 years of the proposed $176,000 annual rent payments for the taxpayers of Renton to recover the renovation costs.

This looks like the type of public cash/credit giveaway that is forbidden by the constitution.

As one other interesting data point, the “operator” who wishes to rent our newly-renovated city Pavilion building for $5-$15 per square foot happens to own a 65-year-old building a few blocks away from the Pavilion. His building is tax-assessed at $2.1 million (about 20% of what we are spending on updating the Pavilion), and he is advertising that building for lease for $20 per square foot.  Clearly the Pavilion, with its park setting in the heart of downtown, is being subsidized at the proposed lease rate.

The Council is also being asked to lease 30 dedicated parking spaces in the adjacent City Center Parking garage to the operator for about $1.31 per spot per day, which is a bargain.  The garage also provides hundreds of free two-hour spots to the Pavilion’s customers.

I don’t blame the operator for asking for the best deal he can get. He’s in business, and it’s what sensible business people do.  But government officials have to say “no” sometimes.  While a true public market could be a desirable public asset, Renton City Council must say no to a public giveaway to a private business.

This afternoon at 3:30 the Seahawks are playing the New England Patriots in Santa Clara, California in Super Bowl LX.  The game is broadcast free on NBC, and is likely to be the most watched Super Bowl in television history.  The Super Bowl is widely considered the premier US sporting event of the year.

Our Seahawks have had an amazing season, and are favored to win! Go Hawks!!!

Renton’s Pavilion Event Center brought tens of thousands of visitors per year to downtown Renton during its two decades of operation. Renton brought this facility to life in 2002, when Council purchased this building as part of a Mazda Dealership, and we rehabbed it to host community events.

Because we got a good deal on the building and we kept the upgrades reasonably modest, the building became an affordable community asset that has hosted countless events of all types.  Many of these events have brought vendors and customers from other cities, supporting our hotels and restaurants and introducing downtown Renton to new visitors.

Nine years ago the city’s operator-partner running the Renton Pavilion Event Center began having to say “No” to anyone hoping to schedule an event for the following calendar year.  Rain City Catering, the Pavilion operator (and King County’s minority-owned small award-winning  business of the year), could have had the popular event hall constantly booked with conventions, large banquets and receptions. But starting in 2017,  the City would not allow them to accept reservations beyond the current calendar year (i.e events had to be held by December 31st of the current year or they were not allowed.)  Weddings and events of 450 people take longer than that to plan

Council tried fixing the log-jam six years ago, by initiating an RFP process that would extend a new long-term lease to the operator in exchange for the operator paying for upgrades to the building, and adding some anchor tenants that would ensure daily activity at the building.  We also insisted that they maintain active and vital event space. Unfortunately, RFP activities were slowed by the pandemic.

After I retired from Council four years ago, the Mayor and Council selected an RFP response from a new bidder, Dave Brethauer, who asked for a 25 year lease, starting at one dollar per year for the first five years.  The lease would then go up to about $150,000 per year, (a little more than we had been receiving from Rain City Catering ) with small inflation adjustments during the 20 years after that.  Rain City Catering made their own attractive bid, and with a term lease they would have booked more events and paid more annually to the city.  Rain City Catering would have paid for all improvements, and added anchor tenants.  I covered the RFP process in detail in this blog post here.

Dave Brethauer’s winning RFP response asked for additional substantial considerations from the city beyond five years of free rent: first-right of refusal if the Pavilion ever gets sold, and first right of refusal on any potential sale of any other nearby city property, including the Transit Center (which will be vacated by 2028) and the former Big Five site which is currently getting millions of dollars in taxpayer-funded upgrades.  In exchange for the bargain lease and all the guaranteed purchase opportunities, the RFP response implied that Mr. Brethauer would redevelop the Pavilion into an active “Renton Market” at his expense, and it would continue to include significant event space.

The Renton Reporter, Renton’s official newspaper, also made it absolutely clear that upgrades would be the responsibility of winning RFP respondent:

“The proposal would leave the renovations, operations and management to the leaseholder. At committee, Mayor Denis Law said that throughout the different proposals the city has received for the 14,770-square-foot structure, there has always been talk of a year-round, vibrant market.

Law told the council that the city is not currently proposing money toward the project, nor would the city operate it.

“We’re not getting into the business to run a market,” Law said.”

(Renton Reporter, May 3, 2019)

Now, six years later, I can find no Pavilion lease with Mr. Brethauer anywhere on the City’s website.  But the City of Renton is currently engaged in using taxpayer funds to make $12.8 million in upgrades to the Pavilion and nearby Piazza Park, with Mr. Brethauer’s  involvement.

THE PROBLEM:

With $12.8 million in fresh public investments on this already-valuable property, taxpayers are owed a fair-market return on the (virtually brand-new) building.   A $15-18 million-dollar property leased to a private party should generate $1-2 Million dollars per year, far-exceeding the $1- $150,000 per year offered in the 2019 RFP response (when the bidder was supposed to fund the improvements).

Washington State’s Constitution has clear, indisputable language about gifting public money to private businesses or parties.

The City’s update from June 19, 2025 says that the City of Renton is building  out the Pavilion consistent with “the RFP process in 2019” (this is NOT consistent with the 2019 RFP process).  Then it says a lease will be finalized in August 2025 (which did not happen) and that the tenant (Mr. Brethauer) will be bringing in and managing the businesses.

We’re six years past the RFP date with no lease, and the selected RFP bidder does not appear to be paying for any of the millions of dollars of work being done.  Clearly the RFP process of 2019 should be considered null and void.

Furthermore, the City has done so much taxpayer work on the building that city leaders are going to have to figure out how to get $100,000 per month out of 12 farmer’s market stalls, two boothes,  and a couple of small start-up anchor tenant to cover a fair rent payment for the city property.

If the property is leased to the winning RFP bidder for what what they wanted in their RFP response,  it will be a crime.  Under our State Constitution, our city is not allowed to subsidize private businesses even if we think they’ll improve our downtown. Giving the market away on a 25-year lease starting out at $1 per year would be unthinkable.  It’s forbidden.

“Public-Private Partnerships” are full of legal and political risks in our state, even when proper and transparent RFP and bidding processes are followed.  And they have not been followed in this case

The city is on a political tightrope that is even more precarious because of campaign donations. A quick review shows Dave Brethauer making substantial campaign donations to the Mayor; while anyone is allowed to make such donations, the Mayor must work hard to ensure any deal is not only fair, but also appears fair to the public.  Full transparency and impartiality are very important when leasing valuable public assets.

And City officials are now  rushed.  They’ve invited the world to see our city center in June, four months from now.  But without a legal lease for the Pavilion, which is a prerequisite for subleases for the interior booths, it’s hard to imagine the pavilion will be occupied with permanent tenants by the time of the World Cup matches.  And if they rush these leases, they curtail the public’s ability to ensure we’re getting a fair deal for the taxpayer funds invested.  (Each lease and sublease is required to go to Council, then into committee, then back to council, and then get a first and second reading, then go to the Mayor and clerk for signing; it takes weeks.)

One would have to be a superhero to get this done, legally, without unfairly gifting public funds, in time for June occupancy.

The City of Issaquah just announced they are temporarily changing their name to 12saquah in honor of the Seahawks exciting return to the Superbowl.  Meanwhile Renton, the proud home of Seahawks headquarters, has been mulling a proposal since November to remove the football from our City’s logo.

[updated 2/3] Fortunately, several Renton Council Members have expressed opposition to the idea,   as have many members of the public. Councilmember Ed Prince, an avid Seahawks fan whose son plays football sport competitively, was very opposed to the logo change. Councilmembers Perez,  Alberson and O’Halloran also expressed concerns about the change. The once seemingly-greased  November 17 proposal from Renton’s communication department recommending the change said the next step would be Council action to officially adopt the new version of the logo removing the football (along with the airplane and the salmon).  Happily at this point at least four Councilmembers seems uninclined to do so.

Perhaps Seahawks fever might put an end to the idea of doing away with the football once and for all.  Our Seahawks’ triumphant return to the biggest and most-watched event in US sports will certainly help remind the current council why we put the football in our logo in the first place.

And as we near the exciting Superbowl LX, we certainly can’t let our friendly neighbor “12saquah” appear more devoted to the Seahawks than we are in their loving, exuberant hometown of Renton Washington!