There was a noteworthy real-estate transaction reported to the city this past week. Boeing has sold 19 acres of property next to the Landing to private investors, a likely first step toward expansion of the urban village and shopping center. This property has excellent commercial development potential, and has already been extensively evaluated for traffic and other impacts. It had even been tentatively approved for location of a new NBA Basketball Stadium.
Many of us aerospace-types in Renton used to work on this site, as it was home to Boeing’s 10-80 and 10-85 Renton engineering buildings for decades. These buildings were not very space-efficient, as they were only one and two stories. (The 10-80 building was probably the largest one-story office building I’ve ever seen). In recent years these engineering teams have been relocated into other buildings in Renton.
Here is the full story in the Seattle Times. (Note that as of the time of this posting, there is an error in the math in the Seattle Times story. The price per acre for this transaction would be $530,000 per acre, not $53,000 per acre as reported. Likewise, the price of the original Landing property was off by a factor or ten on a per-acre basis. I suspect the Times will correct this error shortly.)
Darn. As soon as I saw the $53,000 per acre, I was going to jump on buying up the rest. 😉
Its slow but this helps show that we are starting to turn the corner on the budget. It especially helps the City of Renton.
The REET on a $10M transaction will be a nice addition to the budget.
But the landing already has so many empty storefronts- two businesses have closed since it opened. It needs to expand?
This is a different owner than the Landing. It will not be an expansion of “The Landing,” per se. Hopefully, it will be a cool development that brings high-wage jobs to the neighborhood. Unfortunately, that probably won’t happen for a few years.
19 acres
Hmmmm, MAYBE this property, when developed will put the people in Skyway, hopefully to be part of Renton in 2012, to work….just a thought 🙂
Re: 19 acres
By 2012, with all of the Chairman Maobama policies going into effect, you will not recognize this country, let alone this city. TCC
Re: 19 acres
Good. I plan to start a new style of nation-state that doesn’t get its economical jumpstart from slave labor and free handouts of “unused” property. Also, veal will not be allowed.
Who’s with me?
Re: 19 acres
About 33.3 million Canadians. Can I help you pack?
This is actually a very good thing indeed. REAL investment. Much more practical then the plans being presented to improve schooling for the children of Skyway in some hope that it will trickle down and magically fix Renton’s problems.
Magical fix
As opposed to trusting in the magical wall that keeps Skyway’s problems out of Renton? Renton IS Skyway. Skyway IS Renton. Pretending otherwise will damage both, unless that magical wall starts working all of a sudden. I would not bet the future of the city or our kids on that.
You are right about the value of real investment. I am very interested to hear about the plans for that property, and the larger vacant property still owned by Boeing, but it could be decades before either property is actually developed.
Many kids in Skyway are living right now in an area where gangs have more influence than the Police, and King County will not make the effort to change that. How long before the gangs branch out and do to The Landing what they have done to Skyway? They are already working on the Transit Center.
Investing in Skyway will produce benefits just as real, if not as easy to measure, as developing the vacant property by The Landing, it just might take a little longer. Perhaps longer than the vision of many of our citizens and some of our politicians.
Union Hat