At my last Council Meeting, in December 2021, Renton Council tentatively approved a Pavilion Event Center upgrade. The plan called for the selected bidder to use his private funds to add anchor tenants and portable market kiosks to the Pavilion building. The bidder wrote that he would take out a 1.2 million dollar loan to remodel and begin operations, and his anchor tenants would pay for their tenant improvements. Large events would be held in the updated Pavilion by rolling away the portable kiosks, and installing a stage when desired. In my comments that night I stated that the event capability (which was a requirement in the City’s Request for Proposals) was important to attract new visitors, and I hoped that the current tenants (Rain City Catering) would be able to utilize this event venue.
Per Mayor Denis Law in the Renton Reporter on May 3, 2019 “The proposal would leave the renovations, operations and management to the leaseholder”…. Law told the council that the city is not currently proposing money toward the project, nor would the city operate it.
After I retired from Council, the plan went through complete upheaval with little public process. Instead of the selected bidder paying for the all the upgrades, Renton taxpayers will now pay $10 million for a total remodel of the Pavilion building, plus another 2.8 million for the adjacent Piazza Park, for $12.8 million total. The taxpayer-funded Pavilion remodel includes many features which would be considered tenant improvements: customized heating and ventilating equipment; new floors; interior dividing walls; an entry vestibule; full plumbing and electrical rough-ins for two main anchor tenants and 2-4 minor anchor tenants; plumbing and electrical systems for six permanent kiosks; enhanced area and decorative strip lighting at kiosks and entry points; and other decorative features throughout.
Even more impactful, by running utilities into the kiosks, the kiosks are no longer portable. The ability to host large events, which was a condition of the original RFP, has been eliminated.
The new tenant will also be renting the building at a fraction of market rate, starting with free for the first six months, then $4,909 per month for the next two years, then stepping up over four years to the far-below-market rent of $15.00 per square foot; after that it’s expected to stay well below market (as low as half the rent of similar sized buildings) with 3% annual increases. The tenant terms are so generous and the deal so different from the RFP, I strongly recommended the City issue a new RFP a year ago.
The plan that wasn’t supposed to cost the city anything in December 2021 has changed dramatically. But instead of explaining why these changes to the plan were made, the City has been communicating to the press and on social media that this new plan is the same plan that we agreed to before I retired. It obviously is not that same plan, as the charts below show and as I’ve covered in even more detail here.
Why does the City continue to insist that this is the same plan that Council agreed to in 2021? Are City leaders unable to justify their changes to the plan? Did they run afoul of fair bidding practices? Is there another reason? With no information being made public about this, the rumor mill has been coming up with its own answers.
Renton’s communication team should let the community honestly know when this plan changed and why it changed. Hopefully their reasoning is sound, and the rumors can all be put to bed.
The City PR team seems to be rolling out some interesting propaganda. Here’s a couple of headlines that caught my attention yesterday:
“Adaptive Reuse of Former Auto Dealership”
https://news.theregistryps.com/rentons-9-7mm-adaptive-reuse-of-former-auto-dealership-into-year-round-indoor-public-market-eyes-june-opening/
“Renton Pavilion Gets 10-million GLOW-UP As Year Round Market Nears Takeoff”
https://hoodline.com/2026/03/renton-pavilion-gets-10-million-glow-up-as-year-round-market-nears-takeoff/
That IS an interesting headline….”Adaptive Reuse of Former Auto Dealership”
I wonder if a human came up with this, or A.I.
The building has been an event center and market space for the past 26 years. But the headline “Adaptive Reuse of Event and Market Space for New Market Space” does not sound as good I suppose. It also does not easily justify a ten million dollar taxpayer expenditure.
Honestly, I’m hoping it’s grift. If it’s mismanagement…
What’s next? “Breaking news 2026! Adaptive reuse of old fire station to become Renton History Museum”
Nice
The current administration will continue to tout whatever narrative they want because they can.
No one is holding them accountable to anything or for anything.
How would someone go about holding them accountable? Can the residents or rain city sue the administration?
Why did they use a similar name as, Rain City Market (Renton Market).
I am wondering why they are pushing campaign political signs at the Farmers Market. I was there a couple weeks back when a VERY YOUNG boy came up to me with a petition to sign for Kshama Sawant’s. Trying to get signatures for a socialist to get elected at a Framers Market is very tacky Renton. As of today- three weeks later, the actual campaign sign is still sitting proudly at the area where the market is held. Keep it up Renton you are becoming Seattle.