Seattle Nears Arena Deal

Seattle and King County leaders voted in favor of a memorandum of understanding Monday to build an arena in the city’s southern downtown area with $200 million of bonds.

The proposals would partly finance the $490 million sports and entertainment facility by having the city issue $120 million in bonds and the county sell $80 million.

According to the MOU, the public financing will include two installments of 30-year bonds with debt service payments growing at 1% a year for the first 10 years.

The agreements with investor Chris Hansen say debt service will be paid by lease payments by the private company that owns the arena, according to the MOU.

The memorandum also creates an infrastructure fund to try to help ease concerns about future traffic congestion caused by the new arena, which would share the area with a football stadium and baseball park, as well as the city’s port.

Because of concerns about the impact of traffic on the port, the local longshoreman’s union has said it would sue to end the deal, according to the Seattle Times.

Seattle has been without a National Basketball Association team since the Sonics moved to Oklahoma City four years ago.

Hansen, the developer, is pursuing the project in an effort to bring a new NBA franchise to Seattle. The arena project could also accommodate a National Hockey League team.

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