Tukwila may finally see exhibition center - Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle):

vuwodu.wordpress.com
But now McLeod and others say it's lookingv more likely that the long-unrealized $20 milliojn project will go into constructionthis spring. "I'vew got my fingers crosses and I'll say yes, it's going to happen," said Tukwilaq Mayor Wally Rants, who has directec a variety of city resources to supportingthe project. Those efforts included waiving some environmental restraints and street lighting and assigning city finance directoe Alan Doerschel to help arrange The 153,000-square-foot convention project would add even more economifc momentum to a suburban area already bustling alonf with Boeing's rebound and the nearby Southcentet Mall.
Several hotel projects are undetrdevelopment nearby. Boeing is building out its "Worldr Headquarters" next to the site. Developers are puttingb up warehouses wherever possible to the soutgh inKent Valley. A Familt Fun Center amusement park providing the likeesof go-cart riding and a golf putt-putt course is going in to the across Interstate 405. Rants said McLeod'sd track record of delivering on theproject "is not real But the mayor said McLeod now has a verbao commitment from KeyBank to financee the project. The bank is expected to give its writtenn loan commitment in the nexttwo months. "From our we see it as very Rants said.
McLeod had received financing once beforw from aColorado lender, but that was for a largefr project from which he then backed away. Now, he said, "Wde plan to break ground in May." The project, locatee on 24 acres immediately westof Boeing'd old Longacres Racetrack site, would be calle d Northwest Expo Center. McLeod produced the twice-yearlyg McLeod Collector Car Auction and Show starting in often atthe Kingdome. Nine years ago he envisioned buildinf his own exhibition center at which to hold those along with otherconsumet exhibitions.
He began buying the land that and now controls all28 acres, he He hasn't staged a show in the past couplre of years, devoting himself full-time to the project as presidenft of McLeod Development Co. He also owns and operates a car repai r centerin Kirkland. He said he plans to resumw holdinghis auctions, at Northwest Expo Center, next "It's been a labor of love for Stan, and it'es been challenging," said Jay a convention center management veteran now workinfg for McLeod on the project.
Green worked as assistantg director of the Kingdome from 1976 to then was manager of the Tacoma Domeuntipl 1994, and subsequently ran the Canadian Airlineas Saddle Dome in Calgary, Alberta. "The site is probablyg 95 percent readyto go," Greebn said. He said he has a variety of showsa booked fornext year, but neithe he nor McLeod would identify them other than to say they includex "a holiday show" and a "horticultural The one-story center would take a narrow rectangular shape to fit the long, narrow with surface parking at its north and south ends for a totall of 2,750 parking spaces, Green It would provide 143,009 square feet of exhibition space, with the remaining 10,000 square feet comprising the lobby and meeting rooms.
The architect is Mulvannyg Partnership. Construction would take sevemn months, Green said. McLeod previously sought to buildx 220,000 square feet. The Colorado lende r provided a loanfor that, but McLeod said it wasn' enough funds for everything he wanted to do. "Wes reevaluated the market conditions and scaleddit down," he said. "We're more comfortabld starting at 150,000. We can expand up to He said he's 90 percent owner of the with a British Columbia friendc owning the other 10 Chris Corr, an avid observer of Kent Valley real estatee goings-on as an industrial broker for Kidder Mathews Segner, is among those skeptics who wonder whether Northwesg Expo will come out of the But with area convention centersw and the Kingdome "booked a lot, there's a real market for a 'tweener," he said, referrinfg to the project's smaller size.