Seattle City Council’s Top Dogs announced yesterday that they settled an agreement with Chris Hansen, hedge fund manager, to build a $490 million dollar sports arena in Sodo, and sent the proposal off to their individual councils to mull over and decide if the arena’s financial plans are feasible, and if the added traffic will affect Sodo’s industrial area. Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn and King County Executive Dow Constantine came out of the meeting with a positive outlook, with protection for taxpayers and a $800 million ballpark in private investments from Hansen and his investment group, ArenaCo. $290 million of the donations will go towards arena construction, and roughly $500 million will go to purchasing a National Basketball Association team; investors also hope the arena will attract a National Hockey League in the near future.
According to the Seattle Times, this deal could mark one of the largest private capital deals for a project like this in North America. While the arena has been widely accepted as a plausible deal for the city of Seattle, the memorandum of understanding (MOU) will now go to the city and city councils, whose members have openly voiced concerns for traffic congestion in the area’s already bustling sodo district, and loose financial plan. For more information regarding arena construction updates, follow the Seattle Times.









