Seattle Approves New Ownership of Empty Pit Downtown

A long idle giant pit near Seattle City Hall is poised to get a new owner and perhaps new life. The Civic Square site, as it is known, has a storied history, but on Monday the Seattle City Council turned the page, voting to give their approval to new terms for a purchase and sale agreement.

Bosa Development, a British Columbia-based development firm, will buy the full block site for $16 million and construct a new residential high-rise tower. Bosa is known locally for their twin residential high-rise project, Insignia Towers, in Belltown. Proceeds from the sale of the site will go to the Equitable Development Initiative fund to help provide a variety of local investments.

A Brief History of Civic Square

Civic Square was originally the City’s old public safety building but was torn down in 2005. Shortly thereafter, Mayor Greg Nickels’ administration negotiated a deal to transfer the property to Triad Development, a private development firm, to construct a high-rise tower on the site in exchange for providing a new large public plaza space on the site. Triad struggled to find financing for the project and then the Great Recession hit in 2008 bringing the prospect of redevelopment to a halt and adding it to the rolls of squandered public land in Seattle.

In 2015, Triad become embattled in scandal during the general election after revelations that a senior executive with the company was trying to bribe Jon Grant to gain favor for the Civic Square redevelopment. Grant was a candidate for Seattle City Council that year (he is again this year) and rejected and made public the illicit offer. In response, Mayor Ed Murray sought to end the relationship with Triad over development of Civic Square, but unwinding that relationship hasn’t been easy.