Sunday Buzz: Downtown Seattle's big hole will be filled — eventually

Civic Square, the ambitious project that's slated to fill that full-block hole across Fourth Avenue from Seattle City Hall, cleared its first significant hurdle this past week.

But don't expect to see anything rising from the city-owned site of the old Public Safety Building for at least 18 months.

While the grand vision for the site persists, the timetable and the price tag are shifting.

The city's Downtown Design Review Board and Design Commission approved the project's design this past Tuesday night in a joint meeting. It was the latest of so many meetings that Brett Allen can't remember them all — maybe eight?

Allen is director of new business development for Triad Development, whose plan for the block bounded by Third and Fourth avenues and James and Cherry streets was selected by the city over those of four competitors nearly two years ago.

At the time, Triad and the city spoke of a $300 million development that would revitalize south downtown and be finished by late 2010.

Triad's plan calls for a civic plaza flanked by a 42-story office, residential and retail tower to the north and a low-rise retail pavilion to the south. At Third and James there will be an escalator descending to the soon-to-be light-rail station below Third.

But Allen said Civic Square's projected cost has risen to $500 million. And Triad doesn't expect to have all the permits it needs to start construction until at least June 2010.

After that? "By that point, hopefully we'll be out of the difficulties we're in now," Allen said, referring to the financial meltdown that has stalled many projects much farther down the pipeline.

Construction would take about three years. Triad would get the tower; the city would own the plaza and retail.

Allen said he expected the project would be further along by now. But, considering what's happening with the economy right now, slower has its advantages, he added.

— Eric Pryne

Spacelabs cuts 57,

orders vacation time

for remaining staff

About 400 employees of Issaquah-based Spacelabs Healthcare will be home for the holidays — a week at Thanksgiving and two at year-end — whether they like it or not.

The company, a pioneer in the area's medical-device industry, eliminated 57 jobs this month and told most remaining employees to take vacation time around the holidays so it could temporarily close its offices.

"We've been in the business 50 years, and we decided this was an action we needed to take at this point," says Spacelabs spokesman Dan Prueher. Support services for the company's hospital customers will remain open, he adds.

Spacelabs has "well over 400" people in Issaquah and 1,100 worldwide before the cuts, he says.

The company, which originally made equipment to track astronauts' vital signs, now develops and manufactures a range of hospital equipment for patient monitoring, anesthesia delivery and diagnostic cardiology.

"This has been a very tough challenging couple of months" because hospitals are delaying equipment orders as they cope with a slowing economy and difficulties in getting financing, the head of Spacelabs' parent company, OSI Systems, told analysts on a conference call October 30. Chairman CEO Deepak Chopra said the company planned "aggressive steps" to ensure its healthcare unit remains profitable.

Another noteworthy bit from that call: Chopra highlighted a new ultra-lightweight patient monitoring product line that he said is the "first product designed by our global development team in our new facility in Suzhou, China."

— Rami Grunbaum

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