Rising 14 stories above downtown,
this is billed as North America's
First Vertical Convention Center.
It's striking
design of steel, glass
and wood is eye catching.
But the amenities inside are
what's most impressive.
Here are a few numbers that highlight this
new $2 billion facility.
It has more than
570,000 square feet of event space,
more than doubling the capacity
of the convention center
when you factor in the original building.
There's a 58,000 square foot ballroom,
62 meeting rooms,
and two gigantic exhibit halls.
One, you can drive a tractor
trailer into.
Joining me
now is the president
and CEO Jeff Blosser,
who is the man behind this vision.
Thank you for being here.
Thank you very much.
Jeff, can you please clear up
any confusion about this building?
Does this one replace
the existing convention center?
It doesn't.
It's an additional facility for us.
And the reason around
that is really because we didn't
have enough dates and space
in the Arch building.
So building the Summit facility
really gives us the opportunity
now to book things simultaneously
or book things
in a move in a move out scenario,
which really
then opens up our ability
to be able
to bring more people to Seattle.
Can you go over the names
of the buildings again?
They have different names, don't they?
We went from the Washington
State Convention Center
to the Seattle Convention Center,
and we wanted to make sure
that the campus had the ability
for people to understand
which building they needed to go to
because they're not connected.
So being able to do that,
we use the SkyBridge as the Arch,
if you will, for the current building,
and then the hill climb
as the Summit for the new building
and a really loud stand to be able
to make sure that people understand.
I got to go to the Summit
for this meeting.
I got to go to Arch for this convention.
So it really helped us do that.
Now that the convention center space
has nearly doubled in Seattle,
actually more than doubled,
what does it mean for our city?
It really means
a couple of different things.
One is, like I said, it
really helps us with the types of events
that we can do now
that we couldn't do before.
But if events do want to get bigger
or if they want to have additional space
or they may want to co-locate
with somebody else,
and then and groups will do that
so that they can broaden
their perspective and their attendees.
We now have the capabilities
with the two buildings to be able
to do those for them, either get bigger
or have multiple events.
As for the convention center,
tell us about the new vertical design.
Well, I think when you take a look
at an urban setting
and you want to make sure
that the convention center
is set in a way
that allows for people to enjoy the city,
enjoy all that the city has to offer,
whether that's restaurants
or retail or attractions
like Pike Place Market,
you really got to be downtown
and the only way to do that
anymore is really to build it
in the urban core.
And for us to be able
to get the space that we needed,
it really had to go vertical.
And LMN,
who's our architects,
did an excellent job of being able
to put this in the downtown
core in the heart of the city
and then go with the space vertically,
that gives us all the opportunities
in the space
that we need to be successful.
Is there a long waitlist?
We would be nice if we had that.
But we do have a lot of people
coming in now.
And once the building is open,
you know,
people want to make sure
that everything is ready to go for them.
So we're getting a lot of interest
both locally
and nationally now
for the availability
of the Summit building,
but also just to come to Seattle.
And that's
where we really wanted to offer
because we were saying no
a lot with the other building
because we just
don't have the space and dates.
Now we can say yes.
And when you can say yes
and then you get people
that come to town.
Which Is better for the city
and best for the economy. Right.
I know there are too many to list,
but tell me about
some of your favorite features
of this convention center.
Well, there's lots of them, actually.
I really like the entrance
to the building that you see here,
which really gives us the ability to have
the public to come in to our
where our retail core is going to be
and then the convention center itself.
And so we had those opportunities.
There's lots of issues in here
in this whole building
about everything that we've done
from a sustainability standpoint.
Some of the wood support
that you see came
from the old Honda building that we
that was built in 1930.
So we saved the structure there
and we put that in different
places of the building.
The hillclimb is going to be
a spectacular location
for people to plug in,
take a load off, network,
whatever they would like to do.
The ballroom,
which we'll see, is just spectacular.
And I think those are the kinds of things
that really make some sense
for us in terms of what people will see
in the building.
Glass everywhere,
every corner of this building,
you can see a different location
of downtown Seattle,
which makes it very,
very special and very, very different
than most convention centers.
So those kinds of things,
the atriums that are here
allow you to see all the way
up to the building
and down to the exhibit
hall, which is really something
that's very special
and not around
any other convention center.
So I think we offer those things
that nobody else has
and we can showcase those.
That's wonderful.
Jeff, thank you for agreeing to help us
lead a tour today.
We've now moved upstairs
to the ballroom of the Seattle Convention
Center Summit addition.
As you see,
they're still putting on
some of the finishing touches.
But Jeff, I want to ask you,
this is a large room.
Tell me what it can be used for.
Well,
They can use a lot of
different things in here.
So it's very flexible.
And the reason it's so big is
so that we have that ability to be able
to put in a large plenary session
for like 4000 people
or sit down dinner for 3500.
Or you can break this
into three different rooms
so that you can use it
for all different things.
It could be a whole different set
in each of those three rooms.
So lots of lobby space
out there
to be able to function with that way.
And so we wanted to make sure that the
meeting planner
had the opportunity to do
whatever they needed
to do in this ballroom.
And speaking of ceilings,
I mean, this is a unique
one with the story behind it.
Yeah.
So 3900 plus planks in the ceiling.
And really they came from log booms,
as they're called, wormwood.
And it really sets the tone in this space
of being able to use wood, recycled wood,
and then also the lighting,
how the lighting system
bounces off of the wood in the building
with different colored
lights and capabilities.
It's spectacular
at night
especially, but
it's spectacular for any event.
And as people may not know
from behind the scenes,
this is a very eco friendly building.
It is LEED certified. It is.
And we have lots of different options
there. We have solar panels on the roof.
We are we buy local with all of our food.
We compost everything. We are
about 78%
diversion rate for our our trash as well.
So we really wanted to make sure
that we had the ability
to have an eco friendly building,
one that's going to have
a sustainable operation
and be very northwest.
And we
I think we've been able
to accomplish that. Thank you, Jeff.
We're moving on to one more spot,
Our final stop on this
new addition
to the Seattle Convention Center
is the hill climb staircase.
And Jeff, what an amazing view.
Money shot right here, don't you think?
It really showcases
how this building interacts
with downtown.
It also this specific location
here allows for people to come out
from their meeting
space and network plug in
if they want to, enjoy the sun
like we have today.
But it really was to make sure
that people could get together
and have this opportunity
as well as the views.
I mean, you can see
all the way down to the bay,
you can see First Hill and
Capitol Hill here.
It really showcases the city
and that's really exactly what we wanted
to do with this space.
And that's part of the reason
for the name.
It is.
So you climb up to the summit
and you get the best view in town.
So we really wanted to showcase that
and then we call it that as well.
Yeah, that's a great idea.
So you've had a lot
of events here already
and you have a lot more coming through.
Can you tell us about them? Sure.
We had Comic-Con,
which is everybody's favorite way.
If you get a chance
to see people here in costume.
And the building really
did really well with them.
We have SHAPE coming up with
Physical Education Group.
We have a Microsoft event
called BUILD coming up as well.
We have six conventions in April and May.
We're really excited
about those opportunities
to have those events
here in the Summit building.
54,000 folks coming in to downtown
core is exactly what we're supposed to do
and to help the city.
Yeah. And exactly.
You're quoted as saying
this could be a catalyst
to help reinvigorate
the entire downtown core.
Why is that?
Well,
if we can put more people on the street
and we can get more people
to come to downtown,
they activate the shops,
they activate retail,
they activate the hotels.
And I think it really helps
with the whole safety issue as well.
So we want to do our part,
if we can, with the city to make sure
that we can bring people to downtown.
Jeff Blosser,
president and CEO
of the Seattle Convention Center,
I just want to thank you for helping
give this tour
and for being with us today.
You're welcome.