Monorail hub still homeless

By Mike Lindblom
Seattle Times staff reporter

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Nearly two years later, the Seattle Monorail Project hasn't yet acquired property for the station from the federal government, as the SMP nears a proposed fall groundbreaking for the 14-mile route linking downtown to Ballard and West Seattle.

The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco turned down a request in April by the monorail agency's executive director, Joel Horn, to negotiate a sale of its aging four-story building on Second Avenue.

Monorail officials have counted on getting this site because the Fed will move into a new Seattle branch in a few years, perhaps by late 2007.

But the Fed intends to market the land "competitively" to a variety of prospective buyers, seeking the highest price, at an undetermined date.

"Therefore, the District is not in a position to negotiate exclusively with the SMP," says an April 20 letter from John F. Moore, chief operating officer for the bank in San Francisco. In February, he warned the land "may not be available within your projected time frame."

The SMP released the letters last week in response to a Seattle Times public-document request.

No negotiations are under way, bank spokeswoman Carol Eckert said.

"I don't think we have anything negative to say — we're just in neutral here, because we can't market the property yet," she said. The half-block of land at 1015 Second Ave. is assessed at about $8 million.

Horn declined to comment last week on the prospects for obtaining the land, saying he cannot talk about real-estate issues.

In testimony to the City Council last month, Anne Levinson, SMP deputy director, expressed confidence that a deal with the Fed could be worked out. "Their timing works well for the development of the monorail system," she said. "And they're aware of the good fit between the needs of the monorail for that site and their need to have a disposition of that site in a timely fashion."
 
Downtown businesses and the city's advisory Monorail Review Panel have worried a station would not be ready by opening day in 2009.

A critics group, OnTrack, unsuccessfully asked the City Council to withhold monorail construction permits downtown until the SMP proves it can get the site.

"Don't destroy the urban fabric of downtown if you're not going to serve downtown," said Don Wise, managing director of Metzler Realty Advisors and an agent for Millennium Tower at Second and Columbia.

Before the election, a forecast by a consultant to the monorail agency said the Madison station, close to the ferry dock, would be the third-busiest of 19 stations, serving 4,000 passengers in a typical three-hour afternoon peak.

Board member Richard Stevenson said he's confident the agency will get the site. Even if it's not ready on opening day, people could walk to Pioneer Square or Pike Place Market station, he said. Or, the agency could seek other land near Madison.

"Some of our detractors are determined to use anything they can to get traction, to try anything they can to stop the project," he said.

Stevenson said he hopes the state's congressional delegation will prod the Fed to make the land available.

One potential train supplier, Bombardier's "Team Monorail," is taking matters into its own hands. After private talks with downtown groups, the team is designing a thin station that could fit in front of the old bank on opening day, even without demolition or a land sale, said Tom Stone, who is organizing the team.

Unlike most station sites, where the SMP can threaten condemnation lawsuits to force private landowners into deals, it cannot compel the national government to sell.

The monorail agency could develop the land jointly with a private buyer.