Vulcan Donating $10M for South Lake Union Park

SEATTLE-Vulcan Inc., the primary investment vehicle of billionaire Paul Allen, has promised $10 million for improvements to the 12-acre city park at the southwest corner of Lake Union. It is the largest private contribution to a public park in Seattle’s history, according to city officials. The donation jumpstarts a Seattle Parks Foundation fundraising effort for the park that will begin in earnest in June. Vulcan’s contribution to the park will be delivered in two parts over five years: $5 million immediately to help the foundation fund phase one of the park’s construction and $5 million as a challenge grant after the foundation has raised the remaining $10 million and plans to improve pedestrian access to the park are underway. Construction is scheduled to begin in late 2005 and be complete in late 2008. South Lake Union Park as it is now envisioned became a reality on July 1, 2000, when the US Navy conveyed the deed to its five acres of land to Seattle Parks and Recreation, filling in a gap in its waterfront ownership. Plans include more open space, drastically improved access, a new Maritime Heritage Center, a renovated armory building for large events, a bridge and waterfront boardwalk, a boat launching beach and a model boat pond. In cooperation with the existing Center for Wooden Boats there, which will expand along with the park, visitors will be able to experience boat building, rent boats, examine historic vessels, participate in children’s programs, take sailing lessons and attend waterfront concerts and festivals. Although not nearly as much as the city and its residents, Vulcan does stand to gain from the donation. The waterfront improvements will only add to the attractiveness of the 60 acres of property Vulcan has accumulated and begun redeveloping in the greater South Lake Union area over the past several years, including several parcels in close proximity to the park. Indeed, because the proposed park-related changes to Valley Street may affect the boundaries of some properties, Vulcan, in connection with its first $5 million, has asked the city for additional time to develop plans for the properties it previously purchased from the city. As well, if the city ever adopts impact fees for parks and open spaces in South Lake Union, Vulcan may be entitled to a credit for some of its second $5 million because it creates open space. Still, the gift came as a pleasant surprise to Karen Daubert, executive director of the Seattle Parks Foundation, which keeps its offices in the Armory Building by the lake. “(Vulcan’s) focus has been mainly south of the park, on transportation, housing and biotech,” Daubert tells GlobeSt.com. “The focus hasn’t been down by the park, so we are absolutely shocked and thrilled that they would consider this.”A park at the south end of Lake Union was originally conceived by the Olmsted brothers in their 1903 plan for Seattle’s park system. More than 100 years later, thanks to a series of land acquisitions by the City of Seattle, South Lake Union Park is poised to become a reality. The Seattle Parks Board approved the South Lake Union park design last year. The plan was developed by Seattle’s Mithun Architects and Hargreaves Associates, a San Francisco firm that helped design the William J. Clinton Presidential Library and Museum in Little Rock, AK.