Tateuchi Center in push for final funds
Published 10:59 am Friday, May 20, 2011
With a targeted opening date of 2014, representatives of the Tateuchi Center are pushing to fill out the budget with donations.
Tateuchi Center Chief Executive Officer John Haynes told a small group at an insider preview Tuesday evening that the center has gathered more than $60 million in donations, with the goal of raising another $80 million to start construction.
The environment is ripe for the building of the 135,000-square foot center, which will feature a 2,000-seat concert hall, as construction costs are low at the moment.
“Our general contractor’s best guess is that we may be able to save between 10 and 15 million dollars if we were to begin construction in the next six to 12 months,” Haynes said. “That is a mighty powerful incentive. We need to accelerate this campaign, and we need the understanding and assistance of the entire community.”
The momentum began to build for the center, which was to be a new hall for the non-profit Performing Arts Center Eastside (PACE), last summer after the Tateuchi Foundation donated $25 million.
The new center would give the Eastside a lynchpin cultural venue to host touring artists, symphonies and other acts. Currently, the larger venues in the area are only 25 percent the size of the proposed center. In addition to the 2,000-seat concert arena, the center would support a 250-person cabaret room and bar, and a 5,000-square foot lounge area.
Located on the corner of Northeast 10th Street and 106th Avenue Northeast, the center would provide a convenient option for Bellevue residents who don’t want to brave the traffic across the bridges to see shows such as the Pacific Northwest Ballet in Seattle.
“My wife would rather watch the Legislature on television than navigate this (SR-520) bridge to I-5, find her way across four lanes of traffic in half a mile, only to be plunged into the Mercer Mess to get to the ballet,” Haynes said. “She’s not alone; it’s an epidemic.”
The new center has been promoted by many prominent Bellevue groups and citizens. At the presentation, Haynes showed video cameos from Kemper Freeman, who along with his wife Betty, donated the $8 million plot of land, County Council Member Jane Hague, representatives from Microsoft, and various performing arts organizations around the Puget Sound area.
King County Executive Dow Constantine’s video segment extolled the economic impacts of the proposed center.
He cited numbers saying the center would bring in 1,200 construction jobs, and another 725 permanent positions. These new jobs would lead to more than $475 million economic activity over the next decade. It would lead to $70 million in new tax revenue for Bellevue as well.
The economic benefits are clear, but the center would also help establish the Eastside as a hub for the arts.
“The Eastside is now an economic center,” Hague said. “It needs to be a cultural center, and it needs a place where kids can learn what’s really in their soul, and that they’ve got the confidence to express it.”
The common thread between the speakers was that the center needs to get done, not just for the sake of Bellevue, but for the whole Eastside. They called on the community to step in and fill the void.
Along with, Tateuchi’s $25 million donation, the center has received $5 million from the state, $2 million from the city of Bellevue, more than $1 million from both King County and Microsoft, and another $1 million from Karen and Chuck Lytle.
Betty Nokes, president of the Bellevue Chamber of Commerce told the audience that the demand for this kind of space has skyrocketed in the last decade.
“It’s up to us to do the heavy lifting because the time is now.”
Nat Levy can be reached at 425-453-4290.
A 5,000 square-foot lounge is planned for the concert hall complex.
A 250-person cabaret room and bar will part of the venue.
Tateuchi Center is planned for the corner of Northeast 10th Street and 106th Avenue Northeast.
