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-Okay, thank you for being here this afternoon.
Pretty excited about some announcements
we wanted to describe.
And, again, I --
we couldn't have picked a better day here in Seattle in October.
I wanted to get a few thank-yous out first
because we are certainly very indebted to some great work
that has been done.
And I'm going to thank the Hudson Pacific Properties,
the vice president of Construction and Development,
Tony Toppenberg and Washington 100 General Manage -- 1000,
I'm sorry, I shortchanged them by 900,
Washington 1000 general manager, Maria Dailey,
for letting us use the rooftop
of the Washington 1000 Building for this event.
This is a brand-new building downtown that opened this year.
And I'm going to introduce councilmember and chair
of the Land Use Committee,
Tammy Morales is going to say a few words.
But thank you for being here, all of you,
for supporting this exciting legislation.
I think many of you understand what we're trying
to do in terms of creating the Seattle we want to see.
This particular legislation will establish a more efficient,
flexible design review process downtown shaving
six to nine months off of planning and design
to allow projects to begin construction sooner.
We all know that time is money.
And, while we are trying to create housing
because the city desperately needs it,
everything we can do from a policy standpoint
becomes increasingly important.
This, in our minds as a Seattle municipality,
is strictly good governance.
And, again, I want to thank Councilmember Tammy Morales
and her colleagues on her committee and the full council
for looking at it from that vantage point,
looking at ways we can cut through red tape
to make progress in our urgent goals
like bringing more housing and jobs
and economic activity downtown. It's --
it builds on the permanent design review exemption
for affordable housing that was passed last year.
So, this legislation, as you know,
it sort of fits into our Downtown Activation Plan,
which has included other land use changes
like rezoning along 3rd Avenue
to encourage more residential buildings and rezones
in Belltown to allow more hotels and other physical structures.
You can see what's happening in our downtown area.
This is good news. We have a lot of work to do.
And you've heard me say on other occasions
we don't take victory laps,
we just keep trying to grind it out and get to where we want.
We had over three million visitors
come downtown this year.
Downtown averaged nearly 90,000 workers each weekday.
Hotel occupancy downtown reached 100% of pre-pandemic demand.
Our proposed budget this year
that the Councilmember Morales and others
are reviewing right now.
And, of course,
I think they'll have some packages coming out this week
and they'll be deliberating
and listening to members of the public.
So, I am particularly nice to councilmembers this time of year
because as important as they make these critical decisions.
And it is really tough work.
And, again, I want to thank you for doing this tough work.
In our budget that we proposed,
three million for our Downtown Activation Plan
went toward revitalization efforts including
revitalizing Westlake Center in time
for the 2026 World Cup making it a world-class --
the world-class plaza that it deserves to be.
We put in 7.4 million in small business supports
including filling vacant storefronts with new
and small businesses that were so important to our success;
2.5 million for art activations downtown building
on the success of the 30 murals opened this summer.
We recently visited last -- this week --
I'm sorry, I get my weeks confused, this week,
a mural done in West Seattle.
And the communities around
just love this kind of activation work.
And we put 1.5 million
for the Metropolitan Improvement District ambassadors
continue enhance cleaning and hospitality efforts.
And I look forward to hearing Jon Scholes
talk a little bit more about what this great organization,
the DSA, are doing to help us revitalize our entire city,
in particular, our downtown.
So, we know that downtown is the heartbeat of our city,
that what we do here people from all over the world
literally recognize and spread on the good word
that we're trying to do through hard policy --
hard work in our policy and, indeed, in our implementation.
So, I'm going to ask Councilmember Tammy Morales
to share a few words with us.
And, again, I want to give my public thanks for her committee
and the work that she's done relative
to land use creating this exciting legislation.
Councilmember Morales?
-Thank you. Thank you very much, Mayor.
Thanks for hosting us here.
This is a beautiful building.
I've never been on the 17th floor
so it's fun to see the view from here.
I do think this is an exciting day
to be signing this legislation.
We all know that our design review process needs
a little bit of review. But this is an opportunity
for us to pilot what it means to cut red tape,
to streamline our permitting process,
to streamline our design review process and really see
and provide the opportunity for downtown to grow,
for downtown to become not just the center of commerce,
but for it to become a thriving neighborhood.
And this will allow us the opportunity to build housing
to be able to attract people to live downtown.
So, this is an exciting opportunity.
It also will give us the chance to review what
our design review process looks like
and to really start to think about more broadly
how we can use what we learned from this
to allow for more housing throughout the city.
We all know we have a housing crisis.
And, as the mayor said,
part of the problem there is that it takes too long
for us to get housing on the ground.
So, the hope here is that we can learn from this process
and that we can really start to increase density across the city
so that we have more housing availability for folks,
more housing at different ranges
for folks at different incomes to be able to thrive in the city
and to be able to stay in every part --
every neighborhood in the city in a way
that creates the kind of thriving,
healthy neighborhoods that we all want.
So, thank you all for being here today.
Thank you, Mayor, for bringing this legislation.
And we look forward to seeing what
a new downtown could look like.
Thanks. -Thanks, Councilmember.
Next, we'd like Jon Scholes to say a few words.
You know that he is the president and CEO
of the Downtown Seattle Association.
And, again, he's been around the block a few times, literally,
and doing some great work.
So, Jon, share a few words with us, please.
-I'm supposed to turn this on.
So, I'm going to do that.
-Or just yell.
-Yeah, I'm just trying to follow the orders of your staff.
Is that on? I don't know if I did it.
Well, there we go. There we go.
-Wait, wait. Let's start all over.
-Yeah. You've got a hot mic here, come on.
Well, thank you, Mayor.
Thank you, Councilmember Morales.
Great to be on this incredible perch with you
all this afternoon.
We're making some incredible progress,
as the mayor noted, in reviving our downtown.
We've got more workers, visitors and residents
here today than we had a year ago.
We're going in the right direction
and it's because of the leadership of our mayor
and our council working in partnership again
and working with the private sector
and the business community.
And that's really the only way we've gotten great things done
in this town over many, many years.
And you can look around us today
and trace that type of partnership
back to those accomplishments,
whether it's the World's Fair in Seattle Center
and the Space Needle or the waterfront
or the Convention Center behind me,
all done through public/private partnership
and great leadership of our elected officials.
And, so, I'm grateful for this legislation.
As the mayor mentioned, in development, time is money.
I think the Space Needle was built in 400 days.
Sometimes it takes more than four years to get some
of our housing projects done.
We can do better.
And that results in cheaper housing for everybody,
more tax revenue for our city,
more customers for small businesses.
So, this is an appropriate I think policy.
And the design review process I think has raised the bar.
We've got a higher bar on good design in our city.
So, it's served a process.
The people who have served on that board
have delivered good value for our city.
And we are -- Seattle is a city with great design
and great designers.
And we can see the results
of the design review process around us today.
And it's appropriate, given where we are today,
to speed up the development of housing.
The capital can go anywhere, we want it to be in Seattle.
And thank you to our mayor,
Councilmember Morales and the entire council
for moving this forward.
-Thank you, Jon.
Well, I'm going to introduce our next speaker with a microphone.
But, if you don't know him,
you simply just don't like good food.
That would be Rick Yoder,
the owner of Wild Ginger and The Triple Door.
Rick is the owner of these establishments,
a respected leader and advocate in the Downtown Seattle space.
He stuck with it through some of even the toughest times.
Housed in the Mann Building,
Rick and Ann bought --
Yoder bought the historic building in 1999
with plans to build a music and dinner theater
in the old Embassy.
And they opened Wild Ginger in 2000.
You may recall their old --
their previous one around the Pike Place Market location.
And then The Triple Door in 2003.
And they've since added two more locations.
But, Rick, I want to publicly thank you
for just continuing to believe in Seattle
and for all of your advocacy.
And let's just cut to the chase. If you like Thai Spring Rolls
or Seven-Flavored Beef or Fragrant Duck,
which happen to be my favorites when I go there,
you're missing out until you've had it.
Rick Yoder, please say a few words.
-Thanks so much. I really appreciate all that.
I would also like to thank the mayor and the city council
for passing this bill.
The downtown -- as a downtown owner,
I know that downtown needs more residents.
It's been hit with a lot of challenges.
I believe that part of the solution is a livable,
vibrant downtown that is more --
with more residents and workers to contribute to a safe,
clean and welcoming space for everyone.
As we talked to our neighbors,
one of the challenges with the housing
is the long permitting process.
The city's own report shows that the full design view,
which is what most projects are required to undergo in downtown,
takes over 24 months to complete.
That means that it can take over three years for a project
to get to the drawing board to actual construction.
That's too long.
The downtown community is to be tied up in red tape.
The health of downtown needs rapid intervention.
As a downtown owner,
I want to see new housing, hotels,
research institutions along 3rd Avenue
and throughout the downtown. This legislation streamlines one
of the time-consuming barriers of the new construction,
a positive step for the reactivation
of Downtown Seattle.
I applaud the mayor and the city council
for taking this positive step to cut red tape
and incentivize new construction.
Thank you. -Thank you, Rick.
Our last speaker,
before we entertain some questions and answers --
more questions, probably less answers hopefully.
A little joke.
I think the jokes are going a little flat today.
I better do some -- -Is the mic still on there?
-The mic's still on, yeah.
The Rodney Dangerfield of mayors here.
Tejal Pastakia, Pastakia, Pastakia?
-You got it right.
-I'm in the ballpark?
-You were right the first time.
-Tejal. We're on a first name basis now.
-Yep. -A very impressive background.
And I need to share it with you.
I want to do this justice.
She's the founder
and managing partner of Pastakia and Associates.
In 2010, Tejal founded --
founded her company to develop urban infield mixed-use
buildings in the Puget Sound region.
Her firm's philosophy, that she lives by,
is to adopt best practices through the development
of various mixed-use projects as well as public projects.
Over the last 25 years, she has developed and built
over 7,500 units and over 200,000 square feet
of office and neighborhood retail in the region.
Tejal currently serves on the board of directors
for the National Association of Industrial and Office
Projects - Puget Sound Chapter, NAIOP,
is on the board of the trustees
of the Seattle Academy of Arts and Sciences,
otherwise known as SAAS,
and is a board member at the University
of Washington Wright Runstad College of Real Estate.
She previously served two terms
on the Board of Bellwether Housing and Afford --
many of you know,
an affordable housing organization
in the Puget Sound region.
Tejal, thank for your leadership
and all of this -- what you've done for this region
and in this particular project of legislation.
Thank you very much.
-Thank you. -Tejal?
-I would like to -- can you hear me?
It's working. -Yes.
-At least I think it's working.
I think it's working. -There you go.
-The short person. -There you go, there you go.
-I'd like to thank you, Mayor, the city council
and the city staff for their leadership and vision
with this very important step in making it faster
to build much more needed affordable housing and other --
throughout downtown and the densest parts of our city.
Pastakia and Associates is a multifamily developer
that builds throughout Seattle.
We take great pride in building communities
that make our neighborhoods vibrant places to live,
neighborhoods like Fremont, Wallingford, Interbay,
Queen Anne, Capitol Hill and East Lake.
This legislation will send a very strong message
that Seattle is serious about meeting its housing needs
and most -- and, more importantly,
addressing its affordability crisis.
Over the last decade or so,
we have seen Seattle's permitting process go
from 12 to 18 months to over two-plus years.
This long and often arduous process often makes
our projects infeasible due to changes in market conditions,
rising construction costs, rent crises, and recently --
most recently, interest rates.
Design review costs have become so cumbersome projects
often don't even get a chance to become --
get a chance to get started. As developers,
we are committed to build high-quality,
beautiful buildings in the Puget Sound region.
By focusing on the delivery of the end product
in an efficient manager -- manner
and in making it a clear, streamlined process,
I am confident that we will begin to see
more housing being delivered faster
throughout the downtown area.
Mr. Mayor, City Councilmember, I applaud you for this small
but important step towards building more housing faster.
There is more to be done.
But this legislation is a big step in the right direction
to address our city's housing crisis.
Thank you.
-Thank you, Tejal. Thank you very much.
That was very nice. Thank you, Tejal.
Last -- on and off here. Okay.
I want to recognize two very important department heads,
Nathan Torgelson and Rico Quirindongo, of SDCI and OPCD.
Would you just raise your hand
so we can all publicly recognize you?
It is both your leadership and your incredible staffs,
respectfully, that have helped us do this work
so that the council can review it the way they did.
So, I want to thank you publicly.
And, with that, if there are any questions, we'd entertain.
We're going to sign some legislation.
Any questions would you like to advance to me
or any of the speakers for that matter?
Yes, sir, go ahead. -Yeah.
You mentioned the need for funding for affordable housing.
Can you talk to the precedent
that you're setting with this budget
that's diverting the JumpStart tax
that would have funded more affordable housing
to other priorities in your budget?
-Okay. You want me to comment on that?
Is that a question?
Sure, I'll be more than happy to comment.
So, we had a real tough business revenue year,
as you know, over 250 million or so.
And what we wanted to do
is make sure we increased the level of funds and revenues
toward affordable housing.
I think 343 or 342 million respectively is the highest
that we've ever done as a city. But we also recognize
that there are many other competing priorities.
And, so, what we try to do,
very methodically working with the housing community,
affordable developers, neighborhoods,
is try to submit to the council a balancing package.
We were fortunate that some of the revenues
from that particular tax source were higher than predicted.
So, the question I asked my cabinet members was, number one,
"In addition to just hard dollars,
what can we do to make housing more affordable?"
Next week, I'm having a meeting, a very large meeting,
with the philanthropic communities, housing developers,
the employer community, state legislators, county leadership,
a fairly large meeting next week
to look at the affordable housing crisis.
So, the question becomes, quite honestly,
"What else can we do in addition to money
given the fact that we had a very, very tough budget year?"
So, we will continue to look at that.
And, the council, they're under the same pressure.
Everything that we try to do in the city seems to be competing,
whether it's public safety, climate change,
educational opportunities, you can go down the list,
and it's really hard to take from one pot to the other.
We realize we are in an affordable housing crisis.
Well, people are also hungry.
And, so, you even look at some of the food and security
investments we're making, that becomes critically important.
So, we think we tendered a good package to the council.
The council will deliberate,
make some tough decisions and Seattle will be better for it.
Did anyone want to add in?
Rick, you want to take a shot at that question?
No, you'll pass on that one.
Are there any other questions that anyone would like to ask?
If not, we are going to have fun signing this legislation
and I'm going to give out some pins.
Thank you very much for being here
and helping us build One Seattle.
Thank you very much.
[ Applause ]
-Step forward on this side, folks.
-Okay.
-Thank you, Mayor.
Whenever you're ready, sir. Thank you.
Excellent. Thank you.
-Everybody good?
All right. It was a good day.
[ Applause ]