After months of negotiations and speculation, downtown Seattle is getting their arena.
The Seattle City Council reached a tentative agreement with real estate developer Chris Hansen to build an arena downtown in the city.
The cost? $490 million.
There is a bit of public money being put to use in this deal as up to $200 million would be used to improve the roads around the new arena to help alleviate potential traffic issues. Hansen may also be required to purchase Key Arena and the land around it at a later date to save the city from owning an aging, obsolete building.
Last week, Hansen completed the purchase of more land downtown in order to secure the area he’d need to construct the new facility and the city is hailed by investors as being a great future location for an NHL franchise. Hansen’s main reason for the new arena is to bring the NBA back to town, but the NHL would also be welcomed there.
At the very least, should things not work out in Phoenix with the Coyotes, there’s a highly intriguing American location that will have a brand spanking new arena in the near future to lean on.