Among the victims of 2020 is the Seattle Labor Temple, which the association of unions that manages the building put up for sale last summer. The 1942 Art Deco building on the corner of 1st Avenue and Clay Street in Belltown will be renovated and converted to a co-working space and social club for business executives. VIA Architecture mocked up designs for a 16-story apartment tower to rise above the preserved podium back in 2018, but that plan isn’t certain yet. The developer, FAUL, meanwhile is working on a plan to preserve and renovate the existing structure.
It would be easy to paint the developer as a villain here, but the Labor Temple Association is optimistic about the deal. Heartland has even agreed to help locate a new site for the unions that call the temple home.
The Third Labor Temple
“The plan is to relocate and create the third Labor Temple… the next awesome Labor Temple, someplace close to the light rail,” UNITE HERE Local 8 President Erik Van Rossum said in a 2018 interview with the Daily Journal of Commerce. “We’re excited. It’s a great opportunity.”
Earlier this month, Van Rossum confirmed the Labor Temple Association had zeroed in on a site in South Seattle for the new labor temple, but wouldn’t disclose the exact site until the deal closes. Selling its valuable Belltown real estate will give the association a boost, but not enough to fully cover the move.
“It is a little difficult for the labor temple right now because the building we are selling and the building we are buying is going to leave us with a multi-million dollar hole,” Van Rossum said. “But in the long run it’s going to the right decision, and we’re going to look at that beautiful building for many years to come. So, all worth it.”
Van Rossum came across as a full-bore historic preservationist, supporting other recent campaigns like Save the Showbox and the fight to block a 14-story boutique hotel opposite Pike Place Market and recounting earlier battles with hotel developer Richard Hedreen, a frequent foe for UNITE HERE Local 8, which represents hotel workers.
Earlier this month, I had offered an alternate take on the labor temple. Building preservation where the use isn’t preserved felt a little empty to me. Under union management, the Seattle Labor Temple has been one of the premier affordable meeting spaces in the core of Seattle. I’ve gathered there many times for events or meetings with the Move All Seattle Sustainably (MASS) coalition or the Transit Riders Union. Public meetings are unlikely to continue there once it’s a swanky members-only social club and coworking space.
Joe Mizrahi, secretary-treasurer with United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) 21, the largest private-sector union in the state, offered that preservation costs likely hurt the resale cost too. That said, preserving the use in addition to the building exterior would be difficult without a dedicated funding stream and the museum route is complicated by fact that the Museum of History and Industry (MOHIA) already exists in a similar vein, Mizrahi noted.
“I’m not a tenant so I wouldn’t presume to speak for them but my guess is that it was mostly a pain in the butt that impacted the sale price negatively,” Mizrahi tweeted. “History is great but I’m sure most unions would rather have the [money] to spend on organizing workers.”
