The Special meeting scheduled for 2019-07-23 at Kirkland

Transcript

The Special meeting scheduled for 2019-07-23 at Kirkland

Good morning
Good morning
This is Commission President Stephanie Bowman calling to order the special meeting of July 20 3rd, 20 19
The time is eleven thirty nine
We're meeting today at the city council chambers in Kirkland's present with me today
Commissioners Calkins, Feldman and Steinberg
Commissioner Gregoire is excused today
This meeting is being digitally recorded and may be heard or viewed at any time on the port's Web site and may be rebroadcast by King County Television
Please join me in standing for the Pledge of Allegiance
Great
Thank you
So before we began, I wanted to just take a moment and give a special thanks, first of all, to Mayor Sweet, who's going to join us here in just a moment
And city manager Kurt Triplett and Lorie McKay, both of which gave us just a fantastic tour this morning of the Cross Kirkland corridor
And thank you so much for taking the time to arrange for us to be here
It was really important for us to be able to do meetings here on the east side
I think some people sometimes forget that the port of Seattle's district is king county wide
You're all our constituents
We report to you
And so we want to make sure that we're making that connection and being here very visibly
There's so much growth happening here on the east side
We got the opportunity this morning to see the original Google campus and learn a little bit more from the city manager about the plans for expansion
And that's really exciting
You've got a great team here
Mayor, just want to compliment you in particular
You just have a fantastic admin team working and running the city
We really get what I think was most interesting to all of us was the eastside rail corridor and the improvements and what that's done for economic development for the region
And I think any commissioners want to weigh in on that project in particular
You want a picture like the existence of the Colossal was a tremendous surprise
And I'm very I'm glad somebody saw the value of preserving such an iconic piece of Seattle
But overall, it was the wildlife cadre, the pedestrian
Carter, everything about that was a spectacular experience
Thank you
And I'm glad that the port was the one that initially initiated the investment that everybody could benefit along the way
Well, it was a win win all around
Like, let's say it was a win win all around
And I hadn't experienced it
Traveling along the corridor until this morning, I'm just amazed at what an incredible community amenity that that has become
The participation in our jurisdiction early and the leadership and the vision, I think, behind that that made that possible will be a legacy for decades and generations to come
Thank you for sharing that with us
Thank you
Well, with that, I'd like to welcome up Mayor Sweet for a few words of welcome introduction
And again, thank you for having us on
Excellent
Well, good morning and welcome to Kirkland
Welcome the staff
Welcome to the city council
Welcome to the city
Is so happy to have you here in partnership
I want to introduce two of my colleagues, council member Kelly Curtis
Council member Toby Nixon
Representing us here today
And Fred, thank you very much for those comments
Clark was built here in Kirkland
What impact do you think that points home? That's right
We also want to thank the speakers here who are going to be here doing their presentations today
We're very grateful to host the port commission's meeting and to acknowledge the critical investments and commitments the port has making across our state, this region, and most specifically on the east side
Thank you
Vince Lombardi once said individual commitment is to a group effort
That is what makes a teamwork, a company work
The society work
A civilization work
And Vince Lombardi should know
There is no better example of governments working together as a team to realize a healthy, prosperous future than our partnership with the Port of Seattle
We have many examples of our partnership
And you've just been talking about the number one on all of our minds
The Cross Kirkland corridor is literally a lifeline through the city of Kirkland
It has brought so much economic development
It has brought social development
It is
It is like a lifeline for the city of Kirkland
What it has done in terms of inspiring growth up a totem lake is absolutely unparalleled
And it keeps growing
I think it's Yogi Berra who said, you know, it's nobody goes there anymore
It's too crowded
And that's what's happening up at
Totem Lake, there are still cranes building things like crazy
We've got 24 hundred units of housing, seven thousand five hundred square feet of commercial space and two hundred and ninety five thousand square feet of institutional building under construction today in the development pipeline coming along
We've got another fourteen hundred housing units in another 840000 square feet of commercial and institutional space
To support all of this impressive change, the council has again prioritized the totem lake connector, pedestrian bridge on bridge, and I hope you saw the place for that today on the sea, Casey, as one of our key work program iteMS Now beginning construction, the connector will be a critical as both an iconic gateway and a connection supporting our pedestrian and bicycling network
When we look south, you went down to look at the Google activity
They have doubled down in their efforts to support both our partnership with them with their most recent building, a lead premium building the second in the state and added 11 hundred additional tech jobs
And I'm sure you talked more about Google than I'm even going to relate today
It is absolutely bursting at the seaMS I've been told anecdotally that for many Google employees, the Kirkland campus is one of their most desirable office locations in the world
You already said that's on my phone, make a comment on it
Thank you for your comments
Bye
By the way
What you have done over the since 1987 in terms of awarding grants to us, over 400000 have helped to catalog cat catalyze economic prosperity in our city
Later on, Toby Nixon, council member, will talk about how port funding has helped us with our economic development and our regional partnerships
Ellen Miller Wolf will highlight some of the remarkable port funded work being done by our innovation triangle
I'd like to close just by complimenting the port on your decision to reach out with these meetings
I think it makes a lot of difference for people to get a sense of what the port really does and really can mean to them individually
So I applaud your efforts to do that moving forward
So thank you all for being here today
I hope this is a fun meeting and look forward to chatting with you later
Bye
Thank you, Mayor
We appreciate you
Well, with that, executive director Patrick, anything to add? Thanks, Commissioner
I do have a few things to mention, please
I have three brief announcements and then some information about today's agenda
First, I'd like to add my thanks to Commissioner Bowman's to the to the city of Kirkland for a great tour this morning
Eastside Rail Corridor project was mentioned, as we've discussed
So I thought I'd give you just a little more information about the project
The port purchase the right away from the BNSF Railroad in 2009 for eighty one million dollars
Since that time, we the port has sold portions of the right away to King County, the city of Kirkland City, Bellevue city of Redmond, the city of Woodville Sound Transit's Sonoma County
As we saw this morning, cities have been converting the right away into multi-user trails, which have helped create the sense of place for these communities
And it really became evident in seeing all the use and everything that was going on there
The connections to the community was really impressive
It also supports a sound transit three in an expanded King County trail system
Our purchase is turned into a great investment in the Eastside
We're very pleased that we've added value to these cities and to our partners here on the east side
I'm also pleased to announce Support Jobs has won the Port Placement and Training Award and the success of it in education sponsored by the Puget Sound Business Journal, and I was there for that award ceremony last week
Port Jobs is a non-profit created about 26 years ago to help SeaTac workers get the skills needed to help advance their careers and get connected to nearly a hundred different airlines, restaurants, retailers and other aviation companies
And recruiting and training workers for jobs includes airport university partnership with Highline College and South Seattle College
Congratulations, the poor job staff for the well-earned recognition of their valuable work
And there was a nice article in the special section from the business owned Business Journal Commissioners last week
In my report, I recognized I.T
Finance and other departments for completing a successful upgrade of our PeopleSoft financial system
I'd like to add something to that report
The Accounting and Financial Reporting Department has received the Oracle Corporation's PeopleSoft Innovators Award for its part in the upgrade before it will be recognized that the 2019 PeopleSoft Open World Conference in San Francisco later this year
Sounds like a great event regarding today's today's commission meeting
There are three items I'd like to highlight
Item 3 Be on your consent agenda authorizes us to enter into a memorandum of understanding with maritime blue M.O
You lays out general areas of cooperation and directs the partners to develop annual joint programs of work over the next five years
The purpose of this effort is to sustain Washington's maritime industry and help advance efficient, clean and safe maritime practices
Item three, see on your consent agenda, request for approval to fund the scope and preliminary design for a number of aviation projects
You're briefed on this item last meeting
I think we may have some action related to that, but I do want to point out great
Now, this was as we have that briefing last time, that these are these are projects and this work is not prejudging or in any way influencing our environmental review for the same process that is ongoing now
And we'll know more about that
Item eight days, a staff briefing to inform you about the strategic roadmap for optimizing sea tax airport's main terminal infrastructure and operations to accommodate growing demand during the period between present day and potential implication or enhancement initiatives
So this actually is our efforts to catch up with where we are with our growth at the airport at SeaTac
And with that commissioners, that concludes my remarks
Okay, great
Thank you, MR Metruck
With that, we're going to move on to the unanimous unanimous consent calendar
Excuse me
Items on the consent calendar are considered routine and will be adopted with one motion
I believe that we have some items that we might want to pull
I was asking to pull three C, three C O and and to note that the next highlighted forum will have on the thirty first as well
Chance to discuss these matters
Okay
3 C anything else to be pulled? No
Okay
Well pull three C
So with that
Is there a motion to approve items three A three B and three D
Excellent
Then moved in second by Commissioner Steinbrueck
All those in favour please indicate by saying hi by all opposed nay
I's have it
All right
Thank you
So with that, I believe we're going to move on to our panel presentations
And with that, we're gonna start with a panel discussion on tourism marketing support and spotlighting our airport advertising
MR Metruck measures during this during this panel, you will receive an update
You know what? I
I apologize
I just miss public comment
I am so sorry
I've never done that before
Oh, that doesn't really matter
You know, I am in, but I am embarrassed
I apologize
I knew new location
I just so we now we're doing public comment
My again, my sincere apologies
Well, any materials that we have for public comment, as usual, can go to our clerk over in the corner for inclusion in the meeting record
If you wish to speak, we've got two people signed up so far
Anybody else? Please sign up with our clerk now
Time will be limited to three minutes per person
We have first of those Joshua Berger, followed by an croaker, and then that's all I have right now
So if anybody else, please, this is a time to sign up
Joshua, come on up to the microphone
Public testimony up here
Thank you
Commission President Bowman and commissioners
For the record, an executive director Metruck
For the record, Joshua Berger
I work as a governor as maritime sector lead and the board chair of Washington Maritime Blue, an independent strategic alliance whose mission is to move forward and implement Washington state strategy for the blue economies
I just wanted to take a quick minute and thank you with gratitude and appreciation for moving forward with this
And will you? I would say somewhat historic
And this is the first formal M.O
you certainly between a port and and the the goals of the strategy
So as you remember, in January of just this last year, the Department of Commerce, along with the Governors Maritime Innovation Advisory Council, which had great support across the port, including Commissioner Feldman sitting on that council and great support certainly from staff, moved forward and presented our state strategy on how we become a growing, sustainable and resilient maritime industry here across Washington state
Defining that broadly across maritime and ocean interests
As part of that, we also wanted to make sure that it wasn't just a beautiful document that sat on a shelf, but that we had strategies going forward in order to implement that
And again, the Port of Seattle has been instrumental in that work
So as part of that, we develop and stood up an independent organization, a cluster organization following models that we've learned from around the globe and here in the United States as the most efficient and viable way to actually implement the hundreds of actual demonstration projects that are outlined in this plan through a number of different routes
What I'm excited about is that conference that we have between this strategy and certainly the goals of the Port of Seattle and many other
And so this, Emil, you gives us the opportunity to call those out
Right
Focused on decarbonisation, workforce development, electrification and making sure that we are a global hub for innovation across the maritime space
So this M.O
you gives us that opportunity to call that out and not to minimize the work of an M.O
you
But what we're excited about is that we call out developing work plans as we go forward and how we're going to implement all of these projects and what roles we find our ability to do that together
What's exciting is that we've already started that process, certainly between the port and across all the members and interest stakeholders of the cluster organization
So excitement of moving forward and work around developing the Maritime Innovation Center, not just the center, but the programming we're going to put in front of that workforce development, electrification across our harbors
So I appreciate this step
I'm looking forward to coming back to you with some more and continuing our boots on the ground work together
Thank you
Thank you, Joshua
Thank you for all of your work on this for many years
You've been the spearhead of this entire effort
We really appreciate it
Thank you
And then anyone else signed up to speak? No
OK
I welcome I
Thanks for having me
Meanwhile, you might wonder
I've spoken here several times, but you might wonder why I am here now
When I came to Washington, Kirkland was my my residents of choice
And I still love Kirkland
It's great to hear that they're doing these amazing wildlife and people, critters, and they're still there when we moved to Bellevue
We still kept coming back for city offering
So it's pretty
This is this is great to hear exactly why I would like to be here
As a longtime Eastside resident, to let the Kirkland people know that much of this economic prosperity is for the airport
Growth has come on the backs of the s sound s King County people, because we moved to Des Moines and we understand what's happening
And while the airport growth
Airport operations have increased six times and very targeted over our our area is down in South King
They are lower now at the 3000 feet or below where jet fuel and other pollution does not disperse before it hits the ground
And there the health impacts are great
The business and community institutions are great
And I have the choice of moving, but they do not because they live there or they have other issues
I don't want to move
It's a beautiful spot where we are
And I guess what I wanted to say is that if these economic benefits that you're going to consider today do have repercussions and they are responsible
The part that our east side people don't want to do this to other people
So it's since it was a revelation to me, I thought it might also be of interest to the rest of the east side communities that these people have been suffering for decades
And it's it's time to make sure that environmental justice and social justice and equity ability is spread before prosperity for all the communities that the airport serves
So thank you very much for allowing me to comment today
And thank you for coming out here to Kirkland
That's always a challenge
Four or five
All right
With that public comments, nothing else
Okay
Public comment is now closed then
So we'll advance to our mission discussion
I just want to say, please want to make one remark
And I know Joshua has stepped out, but I think one of the important things for us to understand about that M o you that was on unanimous consent, which, you know, when it's not controversial, we don't often pull it off
But I do think it's important to kind of put into the record
It's my belief that this will be a remarkable return on investment for the the early investments we make in this
We know that in the next decade, billions of dollars will be invested in maritime tech
We know that we need to find new solutions for decarbonising vessels
We know that we need to expand sustainable fisheries
We know that ocean renewables will be a major area
And right now, there is not a global cluster
And yet, Seattle, the greater Puget Sound region, we have an ecosystem around maritime that we can leverage
We need to kick it off
There needs to be a convener who says we're gonna bring all the groups together, the applied physics laboratory at the University of Washington
All the community based organizations that are working on this, government agencies like ourselves
And then, of course, the private sector
And we believe that this type of project will help to kickstart that
And so while it may feel like a significant investment right now, I think in the future people will look back and say what a depression idea at the time to ensure that the future of maritime remains in the Puget Sound region
And thank you for those comments and I'm glad you made the additional remarks, because it isn't, but it's a critical M.O
You and I want to a lot of compliments to you and Commissioner Feldman in particular for your work on this over the years, so
Thank you
KAYE With that now, I really am going to move on to the panel discussions
So, Ron, come on up
I think our first panel that we have today is, again, tourism marketing support and then talking about our airport advertising and business centric commissioners
During this panel, you received an update about the Ports Tourism Marketing Support Program in the SeaTac Airport Advertising Spotlight prograMS GUEST speakers will discuss the impact of these programs on their community
With us on this panel, we have Ron Peck, Puerto C.L
Tourism Development Director, Brad Jones
Visit Bellevue director Toby Nixon, Kirkland City Council member
Welcome
Good afternoon
Commission President Bowman, Fellow Commissioners and Executive Director Metruck
My name is Ron Peck
I feel blessed and fortunate enough to be employed by the Port of Seattle for a little over three years
Thank you for the opportunity to update you on the 2019 marketing support program and the advertising and airport spotlight prograMS I will briefly recap the programs statewide participation and then our two guests from the Eastside area will speak to the value and effectiveness for their organizations
After the tourism grants presentation, Joe Meyer will provide you an update on the Economic Development Partnership Program
Tourism grant programs are in direct alignment with strategy two of the century agenda to advance the region as the leading tourism destination and increased visitors and visitor expenditures throughout Washington state, as well as increase the utilization of Port of Seattle assets
They clearly demonstrate the ports leadership in the visitor industry and your desire to have strong collaboration with travel marketing firms, attractions and tourism related events statewide
The programs are generating additional awareness, interest, travel and economic value for the Port of Seattle and all of Washington State
Or the tourism marketing support program in this year of 2019
We obtained forty seven different applications, the highest number received in the four years of the program and awarded to 30 different recipients
17 our new recipients and 13 have been previously awarded
The commission authorized two hundred thousand dollars available in 2019
I think the map reflects a continued state wide participation
In 2018, the commission increased the tourism marketing support program by 50 thousand dollars to a total of two hundred thousand dollars, with an added requirement that the additional funds will be required to go to organizations that are engaged in eco, sustainable cultural, historical, outdoor nature and or promotion of our public lands in their tourism promotion efforts as directed by the commission
The promotion of our environment, culture, history and use of our public lands and waters is a point of emphasis to our applicants
Of the 30 recipients in 2019, 25 identified their projects under one or more of the environment or cultural categories
The port funds awarded to those identified projects will be over one hundred and sixty thousand dollars
Fifteen organizations identified projects involving Washington's environment, eco sustainable or outdoor nature, recreation aspects, methane trails, Discover Lewis County Visit Kits, Health and Grays Harbor
Wild Watch are some of the examples of organizations promoting our state's unique and wonderful environment
Seven marketing projects specifically identified promotion of our public lands and Nash and Parks and Waters, including the Olympic Peninsula Visitors Bureau, Golden Dale Chamber of Commerce, which is a very interesting dark sky program
And I know that one is if you're gonna have to go down and visit the project
Absolutely
I traveled Tacoma and White Past Scenic Byway, also referenced our beautiful national parks and our state public lands
Eleven attractions or our marketing, our state's unique cultural and historical heritage
Cultural attractions participated, including the Suquamish Museum, Museum of History and Industry and the Museum of Flight
We will continue to emphasize the promotion of our environment, culture, history and use of our public lands and waters in the tourism marketing support program in the future
All of our awarded recipients are required to identify specific metrics and demonstrate a return for the collaborative investment, the listed categories reflect strategery
Scuse me, reflect strategies and marketing efforts that have been undertaken
The results in terms of raising the awareness of Washington as a great travel destination and or increasing actual sales by nonresidents for events, attractions and locations ultimately benefiting and adding to the economy by increasing visitor expenditures and benefiting the port with an increase of inbound travelers
An example of return on an investment with respect to familiarization tours is the recently completed posted FAM tour to the Suquamish Museum
Suquamish hosted 15 Seattle area hotel concierges and front desk personnel
With the expressed intent of giving them a firsthand opportunity to experience the unique museum that is a ferry ride from downtown Seattle
The goal for the museum is to see an increase in non resident visitors as a result of hotel personnel recommending that destination
They will conduct a post follow up report on that metric over the next one to two years
Attractions or events also advertise and market with specific goal of increasing attendance by non residents
In previous presentations, we have identified the success of the Winter Grass Music Festival, which is held in Bab Belvieu every year on the East Side because of their print advertising efforts to non-resident bluegrass music aficionados
Winter grass non-resident attendants more than doubled from 2016 to 2017 18 again
A successful story about attendance at events generating interest awareness and actual sales via Digital Media Online has also delivered results
One example is the Museum of History and Industry
Mo High conducted a very targeted digital online campaign in the Pacific states of Alaska, California and Arizona
The results were a 23 percent increase in traffic resulting from those three destination marketing efforts
As a result, more high was a recipient for this year, and they will be conducting another campaign promoting their Pacific Northwest fashion exhibit for this fall
Destinations have also been able to impact travel writers and influencers
An excellent example of reaching the travel media is the 2018 Leavenworth Chamber of Commerce's activity
They participated in Travel Media Blogger Conference in Corning, New York, and hosted seven travel influencers who then impacted awareness of the destination in 2018 and in this year 2019
The earned media value of the articles published from those travel influencers will reach ninety thousand nine to 1 return on investment
In a little over two years that the airport spotlight advertising program that you authorized for the fourth quarter of 2017 to start
We have had 53 different organizations to participate promoting their unique destination or region
Increasing awareness and promoting the unique aspects, activities and diverse beauty, the beauty of our state to the almost 50 million travelers
We're using our airport
This slide is a reproduction of the visit
Bell views advertising that has been on display at SeaTac commissioners
It is my pleasure to introduce Brad Jones, executive director for visiting Bellevue
Rod will speak to the airport spotlight program as well as talk about the impact of the cruise industry on hoteliers and lodging on the east side
Thank you, commissioners and executive director
Thank you very much
My name is Brad Jones
I'm executive director of Visit Bellevue
And I'd like to just recognize and thank the commission for your continued commitment to promote and increase tourism while working with cities in King County and specifically for working with destination marketing organizations throughout Washington State
It is absolutely vital that we have a coordinated program and organizations promoting Washington and offering unique and diverse visitor experiences, the visitor economy and hospitality industry, our large and growing sectors for Bellevue
The two point two million annual overnight visitors to Bellevue inject nearly two billion dollars into our economy and employ 14000 workers
Interestingly, 20 percent of all Bellevue overnight visitors are international travelers taking advantage of the port's programs and facilities
Bellevue has recently adopted a new proactive destination development plan that will enable visit Bellevue and our industry to purposefully grow and diversify our economy
We look forward to our continued partnership with the part of Bellevue and our industry partners are also very appreciative of the Airport Spotlight Advertising program, which is afforded Bellevue the opportunity to raise awareness and interest of Bellevue to potential and future travelers
We've been able to leverage this program to promote Bellevue recently in three different quarters, allowing us and several other destinations to reach hundreds of thousands, if not millions of SeaTac travelers
In fact, several of our stakeholders and our residents
When these advertisements run have really noted to me and reach out
And and I explained to them that it's a part supported program
They've given us very positive feedback after seeing the spotlight
Now, retirements, everybody loves to see their city spotlighted
The Bellevue lodging properties have also been benefactors of a very strong and continued growth of the Alaska cruise industry and cruise season
The continued growth of the cruise industry
I think it is very important to note produces travel and exposure to the region
And it really brings for us much needed weekend demand for room nights through direct cruise travelers and also creates what we call indirect compression to nearby cities like ours
I'd also like to just say that tourism really just does not happen
You have to invest in it
I have to tell the Washington story and we appreciate you taking a leadership role and we look forward to working with you in the future on these and other prograMS Thanks, Brad, we appreciate
I'm glad that you're lot of people I've seen the ads at the airport and they're phenomenal
And I'm, you know, a quick story on that
Several years ago, there was an advertising contract that was writ large for the airport and we couldn't do any of that
So we very intentionally held back about 10 percent of our advertising space at the airport to do to allow opportunities for other organizations in cities to be able to take advantage of
You said hundreds of thousands
It's actually tens of millions of people that see this ad every year
So great return on investment
I'm glad you're able to take advantage of it
It is also my pleasure to introduce
To the oh, excuse me, commissioners
My pleasure to introduce Toby Nixon, city council member from the city of Kirkland
MR Nixon will speak to our various collaborative efforts with Kirkland and the Eastside, including our recent tourism marketing project that they were awarded the two
Thank you very much, Ron and Madam President and members of the commission
I'm Toby Nixon is, as was stated, a member of the Kirkland City Council
I'm also chair of the council's for the city's tourism development committee
We want to thank you very much for creating the tourism marketing support program and the airport spotlight advertising program
The port's commitment to working with cities and marketing organizations throughout the state offers all of us an opportunity to promote the destinations and experiences that make Washington such a wonderful place to live, work and play the tourism marketing
Funding helps Kirkland's tourism program achieve our primary mission of reaching travelers from 50 or more miles away
Our twenty nineteen grant allows us to target potential future travelers outside Washington to raise the awareness of Kirkland as a destination and the unique aspects of Kirkland
Specifically, we're using the grant funding to create some distinctive immersive videos that will be front and center on our new Explorer Kirkland Web site, which is now in the process of being redesigned
The videos will show Kirkland's fabulous experiences, like our extensive, publicly accessible waterfront and our walkable downtown with its wonderful restaurants and boutique hotels and businesses
The videos will highlight our unique parks and, of course, the Cross Kirkland corridor, which you had the opportunity to experience this morning
The primary objective of our Web site redesign is to make it cutting edge, mobile, responsive and user friendly with engaging content that will inspire visitors and allow them to personalize their itineraries for their visits
Imports tourism marketing funding will also be used to promote Kirkland through geo targeted marketing to future travelers from the critical markets of San Francisco and Los Angeles by beginning the itineraries at SeaTac
Travelers from these cities will be oriented upon arrival to where Kirkland is with respect to the airport and Seattle, and they will have an idea of some wonderful experiences offered in our great city
We're excited to explore this integrated marketing opportunity
We also appreciate the Ports Airports Spotlight Advertising Program since its inception at the end of 2017
Kirkland has been a spotlight recipient of this program in four quarters, promoting Kirkland to the 50 million passengers using SeaTac Airport each year
And I'm sure it's going to be over 50 million this year
Yes, we know it's having a positive response because as with Bellevue, our residents let us know they've seen the Kirkland spotlights while coming through the airport
On behalf of the Kirkland City Council and our Tourism Development Committee, I thank you and the port staff for spearheading these programs that are vitally important to our success as thriving, vibrant cities and reasonable regional economies
Thank you
Thank you, Toby
That concludes our presentation
Next up was we've got a couple of questions, MR Feldman and then Calkins
So thank you
I was delighted to hear such great examples of the tourism program application to the East Side and was really encouraging to see relatively small grants being so well spent
And I also just wanted to make a quick clarification of a considerable misquote in the Seattle Times yesterday in which I was suggesting that somehow we should not promote Alaska in India
In exchange doing only Washington
In fact, my statement was actually to expand rather than in lieu of and I think that was really quite unfortunate and actually gave the reporter some help
And I actually I thought was going to get a correction
But the the the idea that
That the tourism from from cruise benefits into Eastside is great
Might my impression was that we have a lot of Washington fell and I love the fact that the map is growing and the fact that this additional 50000 dollars towards more of the eco tourism business in the course of protecting the environment
So that's really important message
And I'm of the belief we can continue to build on this program
If you compare it to the amount of money we invest in promoting Cruise
And then just finally, one example I guess we'll hear maybe following up from MR Meyer, who just told me about this great example of a business associated with tourism and outdoor rec is a business grant and economic development grant
We're giving to Issaquah for outdoor outfit outfitters to have a conference to talk about getting people into the woods and things like that
So anyway, thank you so much for these examples
And with these sort of things, it only makes us want to feed the fire that much more moisture
I just want to add that we will continue to work to emphasize two things
Alaska cruising and expansion of their cruise throughout all of the state of Washington
And I'm very excited because two of the new applications that are closing this year for fourth quarter of airport spotlight include Visit Ezequiel
And believe it or not, our friends in the pond or REI Regional Tourism Authority, which is as far east and north as you can possibly get in our state
So, Fred, it sounds like we shouldn't send you on the next Alaska chamber
Maybe wait a year
I know
Well, let's a bunch
I'll keep on going to Alaska
Thank you
I just wanted to comment on what I see as the merit of this program
A big part of it is that, you know, whenever you're looking at a budget and times get tight, marketing is one of the first lines that people always look at
And I think that's a really short sighted way to look at budgets
We saw it happen with the state in the last recession when the state tourism funding was cut
And I think that's really unfortunate
I think, you know, it is a significant cost of doing business, but it's a very important one
And certainly in this case, it's in the interest of the Port of Seattle to see all the communities and King County across the state succeed as we are the regional airport for all of our international travelers and and for folks coming into Seattle for business who we want to let them know that there is more to it than just the downtown convention center
So thank you all for your work
Thank you for continuing
Promote it
Thanks for hosting us here in Kirkland to reshape the efforts
Commissioner Steinberg, I'm just curious about other sources of tourism grant funding and support
Does the county offer any? Does the state or is it pretty much up up to the jurisdictions to
Their own promotion
MR Steinberg? I would simply say, and we've had further discussions and in my previous presentation in terms of there was no state funding at all for tourism
It's now at a small amount of one point five million
And, you know, we're hopeful
As Commissioner Bowman said, you know, you're willing to look at considering taking a strong position in the future
I'm not aware of any other county tourism specific grants
In fact, I think you were all aware that in order for us to obtain the one point five million state money annually, we must present three million dollars in match contributions
And a substantial portion of that match is a derivative of the tourism spotlight and the tourism marketing program because we can use that
So the state's tourism effort is appreciative of that, not just because we're promoting all of the state, as bred so eloquently said, but because you will literally using a good portion of our dollars for a part of that match contribution effort
And I think the duty of this grant program with the port is that small and small and simple
And they can be very targeted to local communities that can use their own creative ideas or how to utilize those funds locally
Right
Well, I would add onto that
I mean, I guess my ass could be both Toby of you and Brad and other organizations to work with us to lobby the legislature to get that funding
I know that we've all worked on it for a number of years
But correct me if I'm wrong
I think that we have the lowest advertising tourism advertising budget in the country
Is that correct? Out of 50 states
I am not aware of a state that has less than two million dollars
Yeah
I just
It kills me to see the visit
Idaho, Montana signs on the buses going through the county
You know, here
So I hope we can work together on that
And then I would say we all are headed over to our state port association meeting after this
And I think it would be great for our WPA Washington Ports Association to take a take this up and B, get other ports to start investing in their communities, because I think it's I love the fact that we're doing this statewide, but we should have the ports that have jurisdiction over Golden Dale, for example, you know, Port of Click Attack, investing in their community as well just to double the efforts
So hopefully we can all work on that
I wouldn't
Could not
I totally agree with you
And as you are, where some of those ports are actually participating in our tourism marketing support program
Right
We need to have a conversation about that
All right
Well, thank you very much
You really appreciate your time with I think we have another panel, MR Metruck
On economic development, president, the next panel would be item six economic development partnership program measures
During this panel, you will receive an update about the Ports Economic Development Partnership Grant Program
GUEST Speaker was will discuss the impact of these programs on their community
Our panelists are Joe Meyer of Port of Seattle, economic development coordinator Alex Herzog, City of Woodville, assistant to the city manager, and Ellen Miller Wolf City of Kirkland Regional Business Partnership Manager
Welcome
Thank you
Thank you
Commissioner is Executive Director Metruck
So my name is Joe Meyer and the Economic Partnership Program was created in 2016 by the commission
It provides grants for tourism and tourism and economic development to King counties, cities
And in 2019, approximately 700000 excuse me
Seven hundred and
9 6
Almost 800000 has been awarded to 25 cities
Several cities did not apply for funding this year, largely due to council council changeovers, staff changeovers, and its two are still finishing up projects from last year
Staff will come back with a policy recommendation just to make contracting a little more flexible for multi-year projects
This winter
So the funding formula for the partnership program is about one dollar per capita from levy funds going from a minimum of five thousand dollars up to about sixty five thousand dollars
And cities are asked to match about 50 percent of that match
Half can be in kind contributions, including location, staff, time and other services
And kind of looking at the overall makeup this year, projects really included about 14 or targeted around business development and recruitment, 13 around helping startup and existing businesses in the community
Ten feasibility projects, including one you'll hear about later today
And nine, tourism development prograMS And for interesting, a new kind of marketplace development and by local initiatives, some with the tech twist
So next, I'd like to invite, uh
Some of the cities up that we've been working with this year
Alex Hertzog, we'll talk a little bit about the City of Wooden Villas Project
And Ellen Miller, Wolf will be talking about startup four to five
Thank you very much, Joe
Foremost wanted to say thank you for the opportunity to be here today
And of course, thank you for the partnership, especially over the last few years with the inception of this program
We've with this program, we've done some really cool things and we're excited to keep that ball rolling with that with your partnership
But before I get into this year's effort, I wanted to set the stage a little bit with regard to Woodville
With around 12000 residents, Woodville may seem small, but really our economy is outsized in comparison, especially as we talk about adult beverages
I think some of you might agree that the city of Woodville has become synonymous with adult beverages of many kinds
In fact, there are about 130 different wineries, breweries and distilleries and all told, they generate about 800000 visitors annually, which is pretty incredible
And that's even more incredible when we think about the fact that much of this sector of wouldn't
Phil's economy has grown organically and under its own strength
But really, we're looking to change that a little bit
And the city is looking to get a little more involved and support that sector of our economy
Do you need extra sobriety patrols or other additional expenses associated with that development? Not quite yet
I'm pleased to say our crime has gone down overall, so we're doing pretty well
Thank you
I appreciate that
Over the last couple years
Like I said, we've taken a little more active role as it relates to the port and this program
We've used previous years funding for a tourism study and also community paint by Numbers Mural Project, which features a number of aspects of Woodville life, including its history with the adult beverage industry
And those are pictured here
This year, we are looking to expand our support of this industry by undertaking a feasibility study of establishing an adult beverage business incubator, which I know is a mouthful
We've hired a consultant to help us understand some of the nuances
But at this early stage, our initial vision is that the incubator will have three prongs
First, it would facilitate production of adult beverages by providing various equipment, physical space and other operational necessities
Secondly, we'd like to partner with some sort of tertiary education program so as to prepare the next generation to to participate in the field
And finally, we envision there will be some sort of venue that allows the general public a behind the scenes look at some of these production processes and perhaps also fills facilitate tastings of products made there
If all goes well with this study, we will ask our council to fund the project or the incubator in coming years
Admittedly, we're not quite there yet, but we do have their support so far
So we're very excited about the possibilities here and again, very appreciative
Like I said, for the ports partnership in this program
Alex, are you familiar with the Walla Walla Wine Incubator program? Yes, Joe has been very great at throwing us lots of different ideas and support
So, again, that speaks to the partnership with the port
And we're looking a lot different options
Anytime we can maybe go do a joint tour, it was a project I'd seen for the first time about seven years ago right when it first started
It's phenomenal
And it's really they'll tell you at the port of Walla Walla
It has really helped jumpstart those tiny little wineries that couldn't afford a tasting room, provides them with a crash pad in there
I believe they can only be in this space for five years and they have to grow out of it
But it's some they will say and it's become just a huge tourism draw
The food trucks and the whole nine yards
So they made a lot of expertise over Walla Walla for that
Yeah
Thanks, Ken Cook
Yeah, we see it on a on a retreat a few years ago
Yeah, it was great
Mr Guy, just a quick question about the proposed incubator
Will you have an emphasis on diversity, inclusion and in reaching out to businesses that might participate or individuals? Yes, we're studying an aspect of it we're going to fill out
We don't we? I should say that we don't know all the questions we want answered yet, but we're really trying to get her really basic understanding of where to go with us next
And as this program develops will, of course, be looking at many different aspects, including that
Nada four to five, I also like to address the innovation triangle the mayor mentioned debt
We are also very much appreciative of the port's involvement and contributions to the innovation triangle, and that is a three city effort and it includes Kirkland, Bellevue, Anthony and Gillis here for the city of Value
So I want to acknowledge his contributions and that city's as well as the city of Redmond
And it's all about recruiting technology companies to the east side
So thank you very much for that
With Startup 45, there was the Russell Wilson quote so many years ago
What about us? So in conjunction with recruitment, there was the book ending of assisting businesses that are here, helping our entrepreneurs and small businesses succeed
It was an effort started with a few communities and we are now an alliance of five cities on the east side and that includes it's a quarter rent in Redmond, Bellevue and Kirkland, all addressing the needs of entrepreneurs and small businesses, all appreciating the fact that the numbers of new residents are are large
Many of them interested in starting small businesses, also recognizing the fact that we have lots of business failures in this state for startups
And part of that is having the right education and information to start a business and the right mentoring to sustain that business
And thirdly, we have a lot of people on the east side that are downsizing coming out of the ranks of the corporate entities that you all know of with amazing talents and skills and wanting to start their own businesses and obviously hire people to help them
So we're trying to administer all of those and always with a consideration
As Commissioner Hawkins mentioned, to be inclusive and to understand the diversity and try to minister to people that learn things in different ways, in different languages
So we're very acclimated to that
The mission to provide access to tools for experienced workers and entrepreneurs and that need help with their ideas to make their ideas into working businesses that are successful and sustainable, again, lowering the barriers to entry for those non-traditional and first time founders
Keeping our ecosystem diverse, encouraging spontaneous collaboration and providing pathways to prosperity for our whole community
Some of the tools that we're using are bread and butter program is shown on the right and that is a program called the Foundation's Classes, and these are classes speaking to the barrier of entry that are free to people in the five cities and beyond
They are administered by score retired executives on the spaces provided by the King County Library system
So for all those five communities, there are five classes held in the libraries, which are places that are have become third places there where people feel very comfortable going
And we're hopeful that our city halls will be the same
But certainly there are third places for people that want to learn the other
The second run that we're trying to do, well, we're I should mention that we're trying to ministered to businesses that are different sizes and also in different stages of maturity
So our second run is providing advanced services, advanced series of classes
And this year we're doing that in a place called Co Box, which is in Bellevue
It's a coworking space and we're using that space to provide advanced coursework in finance and marketing and business plan development that's happening this fall
And in addition, we're also going to be providing our foundations course again, our bread and butter free courses in the libraries in the fall as well
So and thank you again
The port for helping us to provide those
We also in addition to that, we have one on one mentoring provided to businesses in the five cities, and that can come through economic development staff and city staff, SPDC ministers to businesses in Bellevue and Redmond
And my colleague Duncan Malloy, who's in the audience, ministers to businesses all over the five cities but and specifically in Kirkland as well
So we try to customize our mentoring
Some people are not as comfortable in classes, but or some people are beyond those classes and into having very specific problems that that mentor can provide help for
And then finally, your funds are helping us to put together a three to five year work plan
We really want start at 45 to ultimately be sustainable
It's now sustained by your funding and funds from each of the participating cities
What we've done is assembled an advisory committee
That advisory committee has come up with two very key concepts that we are now testing and researching, one of which is partnering with private coworking spaces to provide our startup four to five mentoring and classes to those engaged in those coworking spaces or possibly doing standing up our own coworking space, not unlike what is being stood up in the incubator in windmill
The other concept is to enrich the curriculum
I've described what we are doing now, but we think it needs to be done in many languages, for example, and more customization for the different business clusters that are entrepreneurs represent
Thirdly, we want a map
We have map, the ecosystem of business services on the east side
We want to be able to connect entrepreneurs to those services knowing that we can't do everything
So
In summary, how so, sorry
And similarly, I just want to do a close up picturing a foundations meeting that includes mentors, and you would I think you'd be appreciative of what you would see of people from many disciplines wanting to give back on the mentor side and do amazing work score
Volunteers are volunteers and there are other incredibly gifted mentors that at this time want to give back to people that are just starting out and then people just starting out with some of the most amazing, inspiring ideas
Somebody that wants to run an equestrian business, someone that wants to tackle, doesn't want to tackle drones, but wants to use drones to assist in in selling real estate
There are a number of culinary companies that want to get out of the kitchen and get into bricks and mortar store fronts, et cetera, et cetera
So we minister to an awful lot of people over spectrum and we appreciate the opportunity
Thank you, Paul, again for being able to mint new businesses and help people succeed and help people support their families
So thank you very much
Thank you, Ellen
Any questions? I just think we should come back to Kirkland because it's feeling the love is nice
Thank you very much
MR Hawkins, one quick question for Allen
This may be a little bit outside of the topic today, but I am curious about ways in which conversations are happening in Kirkland around regional mobility in particular
You were looking at as a significant shoreline landowner
We're looking at is there an interest in water taxis, particularly from your side and further afield in Puget Sound? And I'm wondering, is that is that discussion happening at the city of Kirkwood? You know, we've had that discussion over many years and then included the poor
We talked to Renton about some of the water taxi efforts that are going on there
There are certain considerations because when you deal, it's not just about the water taxi, it's about the subsidies that are required
And so, as I understand it, to to run the water taxi, the other is having to kind of go from a number of different modes of travel, as, you know, transportation to be able to get people to that water taxi
And in Kirkland, we have such difficulty parking or providing any kind of park and ride service in or near that where that ferry embarkation might be
So there are lots of issues, but I think in our hearts then you mentioned the clock A
There's there's certainly a love of Kirkland for its for its its former ferries
And and perhaps there's a way
MR Feldman following up on
Commissioner Calkins interest in the transit or mobility is one of things we've been talking about as potential ways of getting folks from the Eastside to the airport in a efficient fashion, because the airport drive probably has more constraints than airspace
So have you have been part of these conversations of potential remote baggage check in and shuttle buses to the airport? And have that been floated to any of you folks? Well, I know I heard you speak about it at Kirkland Chamber meeting not too long ago, but other than that, I've not been involved
Well, I think the staff is still looking at will
It's something that we'll continue
The conversation is obviously in addition to the rail corridor and tourism grants, having an accessible airport
It's obviously another major thing we can do for you side, right? Mm hmm
Thank you
Well, Alan, I just wanted to add one quick question
How much? What's the staffing of Startup 45? Is it just you? No, actually, it's me
And it's also Duncan Malloy
And I want to say hi to Duncan
I saw you back there
So nice to see you
Good to see you
Yeah, yeah
So I should say that Kirkland is very proud to administer the program, and Duncan and I are very proud to do it
Previously administered by Anthony Gill and Jesse Cannito at the city of Bellevue
Well, you've done remarkable work
The two of you, I mean, you punch above your weight, without a doubt
I guess the question I have on that is you mentioned that the funds come not just from the port, but from the different cities when there was a King County Economic Development Council
Did you get funding from that or do you have the ability to get it through the state ADL? That's nothing that we've looked at
I think it's satisfactory at this point to fund us through hopefully through the port continuation and the cities themselves that have put back put up funds
I think we're thinking as part of the three to five year work plan that perhaps there is some revenue generation through some of the more advanced classes that could be paid for, while we would still obviously continue that, the free classes of the foundation series
So we're looking at ways of generating additional revenue on beyond those city contributions
And yours
Great
Well, I was just curious because that would normally be a function of NATO
A lot of the work that you're doing, again, getting you're doing a remarkable job with a very small staff
So we're fortunate to have you
Thank you
Thank you
Any other questions? No
Ok
Well, thank you very much, we appreciate it
And excited to see the grant program continue on this budget season
Right
All right
Excellent
Madam President
More panel
The next agenda item is a panel discussion on the east side, business growth and port partnerships
Okay
Commissioners are two guest speakers will take us beyond the headlines and share more information about the Eastside growth and possible partnerships with the port
Our panelists are Joe Fane, a Bellevue Chamber of Commerce president and CEO, Chris Johnson W Chamber of Commerce government relations director
Welcome
The Bellevue Chamber of Commerce
And it's great to have you all here today
It's wonderful to have Terry Bowman here
We're very excited to have you joining our board of directors and very excited about the port's involvement on the east side and in Bellevue
What we're going to talk about today, very briefly is just walk through, particularly in the Bellevue area, some of the growth that we've been seeing and what sectors that growth has been happening in
And then talk a little bit about how the ports involvement here on the east side and in the city of Bellevue lined up along the corridor, have really been spurring economic activity and is pleased to have a conversation with some of you recently about some of how those investments have have really played out
The first chart here that I was going to display talks about
Is our downtown employment by sector
I learned that fire at thirteen point one percent, though it looked very much like how much I pay for fire on my property tax bill is finance, insurance and real estate
But what is kind of striking, especially if you were to take this chart and compare it to years past 10 years ago, 20 years ago, is the shrinking retail US segment compared to all the others, particularly services
Don't tell Kemper I said that, but clearly we are diversifying the offerings in the employment that we see in the city of Bellevue and all across the east side and moving much towards that
Information technology and in service sector economy did then dig into those services a little deeper
You could see how that breaks down and in particular particular you can see the professional science, technical and scientific and technical services now making up over 25 percent of our workforce information, which is deeply related to that, then taking us over half of our workforce
And then of course, our food services and accommodation sector grows at roughly the same clip as those other two segments, in part because of the three hundred and fifty thousand nights that folks from coming through see Tax Day and are in our region, in our city
And then of course, as we have companies that see a lot of out of town travel as part of their business model
So you can certainly see that reflected above that, Nia, in the statistics
Next, it's kind of interesting to see how Bellevue and our innovation triangle, which was referred to earlier, the Redmond Kirkland Bellevue area, compares to some of the other recognized tech hubs around the United States, particularly as the percentage of workers in those in those fields come from computer math and science or engineering and science
And it's really quite remarkable that even when you look at San Jose on those comparisons as a region that we think internationally as being a hub for engineering and science employment as a percentage of the overall workforce
Bellevue, Kirkland and Redmond, the innovation triangle actually dwarfs those those areas
North Carolina, also a growing hub for tech growth, is still well behind where the innovation triangle is
And that drives a lot of what we see on the next slide here, which is the explosive growth
This, of course, is just the downtown development pipeline in Bellevue
But if you were to look at similar charts in the other neighboring cities, you would see similar development trends
The new campus in Microsoft, Microsoft campus in Redmond and the increased square footage there in the in the business park development
That's coming from that
And certainly here in Kirkland, as older buildings are being redeveloped into the tech hubs and the expansion of Google that you were able to see earlier today, what you see here is just what's in the permit pipeline or currently under construction, the buildings that are highlighted in rendering there
And you can see that many of those buildings I'm not sure if the
Yes
The next I'll I'll jump forward to and then jump back
I'm not sure if anyone's familiar with that logo, but that is just that Q2 is in Virginia
But is actually here
Exactly
Hq Q2 can be a term that's used
But in reality from the amount of employees that we expect to see coming to the site and in Bellevue in the next five to 10 years from Amazon, it's clearly that HQ to whether it's in name only or in practice is definitely here and in the Bellevue area
How many employees, Jody, expect? So Amazon has not publicly made that announcement yet
The the way that the projections are done by folks like the individuals that provide us this information with Kidder, Matthew, Gary Gunther, you use kind of a traditional square footage by employee calculation and you're anywhere in that five to 15000 range with that kind of a calculation
And, you know, it's possible that that's that that's low considering where the where the growth is coming
And of course, an Amazon first step was to announce the movement of their worldwide group from Seattle to Bellevue
And that's a huge group that is already announced and it has their move in date scheduled
And then, of course, in the last two weeks, the announcement of the forty two storey tower that they'll be under construction there, that you can see, not coincidentally, adjacent to the transit center, which, of course, will be receiving light rail in next five years
And so the timeline can prove that
Right
Yes, I do
And our speaker at our business lunch in September, Peter Rogoff from Sound Transit, I'm sure will speak extensively about that investment
But again, moving back to this pipeline, as you could see, a lot of this is driven by Amazon, but not entirely
We've seen a lot of additional companies that are either wanted to have some kind of a presence here or have moved their entire operation here
And I think the the interesting thing is you talked to folks in the tech industry about how they're making their choices, about what communities they're going to move into
In part, there is a strategy about having at least some presence in all of the major markets so that when there are economic downturns or when there are regulatory changes or when there is a change in where the workforce wants to find that quality of life, they're in a position and they've got boots on the ground in an established relationship with those communities to be able to increase that footprint
And I think what you've seen is out of many of the companies that you see on the screen there, that they've recognized that this innovation triangle is his site area
And the city of Bellevue is a very attractive place to do business, in large part because of the political organizations that that they get to work with
We've got excellent elected leaders here on the east side and have really worked well with some of these companies as they've looking to expand, looking to expand their their footprint
Obviously
When you look at a chart like that and the amount of real estate
Seven point five million square feet just in these pipeline projects alone
This doesn't take into account what you would be able to calculate if I took off that left logo on the bottom and you would see the properties that are up against four or five, which are all two and three story buildings adjacent to four or five walking distance from downtown, you know, two blocks away from the new transit center when it opens up
So clearly a huge development opportunity
And then the developers that own those properties are either starting to go through those early stages of design or have already had conversations with with developers in the city about what that's going to look like in the near future
The other thing that I think would be worth mentioning is as this explosion in commercial real estate is taking place, we know that affordable housing is very is a very big issue throughout the King County area
And right now, only 4000, if we if you just look at Amazon and you're in that 5 to 15 range for new employment, that doesn't include the growth in other in other areas and other businesses
There's only about 4000 residential units that are permitted for the Bellevue area in that same time horizon
And so that affordability issue is just going to continue to be on our on our minds and things that we'll need to work collectively on addressing
Joe, can you indicate really quickly where the light rail station will be? Yes, it's right adjacent to city hall
It's that developed that you can actually see the construction underway here
If you look at northeast 6th to the left of that, that kind of that's where the station is coming in
And the existing Bellevue Transit Center is on Northeast 6th
You can see those kind of that long, skinny building
That's the either side of the street
There is transit only bus station
You can see there is no
There is clearly some synergy that Amazon and other developers are trying to exercise with the access to transit, which leads to the other issue about the issues that we're dealing with and that we need to be at the forefront of
Over the next few years, which, of course, is transportation mobility, both to the city and throughout the inside, but also within the city, had conversations with some great work that this Bellevue is doing about we're talking about a connector route to connect hotels and workplaces and transit center
And so these are really important mobility things that can be of high impact for the region
Next, I wanted to finish my comments, talking about what you were able to view today and the side rail corridor, and Commissioner Feldman and I had a chance to talk about this earlier as well
There are clearly a lot of ownership and timeline for development about different segments of the corridor and when does it all connect and when are the permanent access points going to be completed
But as you can see here, a chart that I'm sure you've seen many times before about where the alignment goes
And if you look over there on the bell, red corridor, particularly where that's diamond is, we're very close right there actually in the Spring District to the new Global Innovation Exchange from University Washington and of course, the new headquarters from RPI
And one of the big encouraging or one of the big incentives that I think RBI and other developers that are looking at this spring district, including Facebook, which would be one of the largest land lords out in that in that area, they're looking at the access that will be available to their employees by having this resource available to them and anyone that drives four or five on a regular basis as I try not to
Yeah, exactly
It's folks that can use that as an alternative
We certainly will
In a company like RTI that actually has a very high percentage of its employees that get to work using alternative means of transportation, which would be appropriate for the corridor
I have really looked at that as an economic development opportunity and so we talk about open space and the importance of outdoor recreation, but that corridor is certainly an economic development opportunity and very much in the in the service of the ports overlying mission
And so we appreciate those investments in that leadership
I will turn this over to our director of government affairs to talk about the coalition
But again, wanted to appreciate you come to these side and given us this opportunity is going to become the CEO who's going to be referred to as Bill Views West Side, West Side
Just a brief comment on that
I'm a South King County guy
And and I and I still live there
And so what's been fun about coming to these side and getting more engaged in learning is that I don't have a lot of the baggage
And so one of the things that I have talked about in terms of that East Side nomenclature is that it is about
Being relative to something else where the E side of something and so I almost I have a little bit of I don't really like that branding
You know, we're our own thing and and it's really great
And we shouldn't cooperate and work well with the city of Seattle
But yeah, it's great
Great point
Sure
Phelan
Well, picking up on the answer to baggage, it's not like the port ever or a commissioner of a feels they carry that
But one of the things that I'm very proud of, the baggage that we do carry is the foresight and investment that previous commissioners made in the investment of that cadre
And it's just delightful to see over time
It was a lot of forethought there
There's a lot of controversy associated with it
And to have gotten just a glimpse of some of the economic development it spurred as a kind of baggage
I'm happy to where I started my encounters with that corridor when I was chief staff people on right bower in the early 2000s and then continued to see it through my time in the legislature
And I think I may have attended between 10 and 20 ribbon cuttings on this corridor every 15 minutes
It's like, wait, is it actually is it actually a thing now or are we just celebrating again? Exactly
But now you can really see the impacts of the vision come to life
Great
I think we'll turn you over to Chris, right, commissioners and staff for the record, Chris Johnson with the Bellevue Chamber of Commerce
I'm director of government relations
It's great to be in such a relaxed environment
I'm used to making two minute comments on the record in the state capital, so it's great to be able to slow it down a little bit while being respectful of your time
First of all, thanks to the port for holding a commission meeting on the east side, and we're grateful to you for being a partner with us, in particular in economic development all along the I 4 0 5 corridor
And sometimes people, I think, have a mistaken impression that the port begins and ends at the water's edge, or there's that little island down in south King County where where airplanes come in and take off
So we're grateful for your footprint, expanding footprint on the site and your interest in a greater presence here
One of the things that I do during the legislative session is represent the East King County Chambers of Commerce Legislative Coalition
You have a slide here that shows you who our current roster of members are
Our chambers are of all sizes and they represent businesses of all sizes and across all sectors from really from south
So how much county all over town of the Pierce County lines with Bothell and Kirkland in the north, we have snow quality in the east, Renton to Maple Valley in the south
So as you can imagine, those chambers have a real diversity of interests and opinions on public policy matters
So sometimes it can be a little bit like herding cats to get everyone on a common agenda
But that's what we do and we try to focus on on high level interests that are that take more than one session to address this past session
Our priorities were housing affordability, mobility solutions and career and technical education
And I think it's really extraordinary for the first time ever that we had a separate housing paper and that housing affordability was our top priority
I mean, that's in the past
I can tell you that the coalition focused more on wage and hour issues or regulatory matter matters and what our employers are telling us up and down the east side
This is all the chambers is the greatest barriers that they face to attracting and retaining talent
In a tight labor market are the lack of housing affordability or workforce housing, which to us means about 80 120 percent of am I ok then? That's what I would call a postie of first and last mile mobility solutions
And then finally, the need for additional a workforce that is has the appropriate career credentials so they can fill the jobs and employers have to offer
That's why we were really pleased to support Cornell liability reform this past session
That was a win
We'll see how that plays out in the marketplace
I had the chance to be a part of a housing affordability forum here just about a month and a half ago in Kirkland City Hall
And I will tell you that a year ago we were told by the realtors that we had one week of inventory that is in the King County residential market
Now, that's up to about a month, but it's still not adequate because it's not spread across all price points
So we hope the market will respond and we hope that more insurers will start providing the policies that are needed for starter condos and other owner occupied housing that our workforce needs
That remains to be seen
We may be having this discussion again in a year and the year after that
There are still there's still a little bit of unfinished business in Olympia when it comes to enabling homeowners associations to act proactively and make informed decisions about whether or not to engage in construction defect litigation
One of the things that is important to us and why we're pleased to be collaborating with the port on the ground in Olympia is some of the items that we see in your own adopted legislative agenda
And I'll just pick three of them
And they're my synopsis, not your language, but first of all, quality jobs and workforce development
The second would be investing in infrastructure of all kinds
And the third is the promotion of alternative fuels such as LNG and electrification, at least of the surface transportation sector
Those are issues that we continue to work on
We think that diversification of the way we move people fits right in with how we power the vehicles that move them
And we will continue to work on work on those bucket of issues in the sessions to come both short and long
So I guess in summation, I'd like to make my comments brief and and be able to take your questions if you have any is what we're really grateful for the port's presence on the east side
We look forward to working with you both on local government relations and in the state capital where we have common interests, particularly, I think, in workforce development and and making sure that we have a workforce that's ready to fill the jobs that are available in our communities
And last stage, I want to make sure you all know that you're invited to attend the second annual Port Unplugged East Side event
Last year was here in Kirkland and this year
It will be at the wonderful new Hyatt Regency Lake, Washington, at Southport in Renton
Someone referenced a ferry passenger ferry travel earlier
I know they're very interested in that on the shores of Lake Washington, a little south of us, but we hope you'll be there and we can talk a little bit more about what the port does for economic development
Thank you
All right
Thank you, Chris
I have any questions
I think we've got a few
Mr Hawkins
Yeah
So thank you so much for bringing up the question of housing affordability
I know that while it's somewhat orthogonal to what we do at the port, it absolutely impacts our ability to do what we're chartered to do, which is economic development
And so I would invite you to begin conversations with our external relations teams about how we can contribute to your legislative efforts to look at some of those outdated laws that I think are impeding supply effectively
So thanks for raising that
Commissioner Bowman and I are the Workforce Development Committee at the Port of Seattle
So on that topic, we'd also be interested in learning more about the East Side sees as its real development
What do we call it now? It's not these sites that send us to a King County or something going to West Carnation
Maybe the
So I'm personally interested in learning more about some of the fields that you see as the real ripe areas of job growth in this area of the county, too
So thanks for for bringing that up
And then finally, I I I think there is an opportunity for us to look at ways that on the question of renewables and electrification, the port is a pretty significant player in those conversations
And so as you all are doing your brainstorming an idea creation around it would be good for us to also share what we've been thinking about in terms of alternative fuels and sustainable and renewables, too
So thanks so much
Well, I will note, Commissioner, that again, the port as a partner, as a supporter of the coalition, if you had been to any of our events, you will see your local as one of our our supporters
We appreciate that
And I think the issue of renewables in the transportation sector is, well, it's ripe for continued collaboration across all sectors
And we're happy to hear a little bit more about what's going on in the maritime sector and how some of our chamber members can be a part of that
And I will say to thank you for the invitation to the port unplugged
I think we're all or most of us are out of town because we're doing this eastern Washington trip
So I won't really make it, but it is a great event
Commissioner Phelan
I want to speak to this concern about you, sign it
It's the east side of the lake
We love that geophysical feature of the state
It is not something to be embarrassed of being on the east or west side of it
It's not relative to Seattle
Be proud of your east side
I'll set you side of Lake Washington
All right
MR Simon, I want to pick up on Commissioner Hawkins comments and your emphasis on affordable housing as a top objective with regard to work workforce housing
I actually think that the Port of Seattle is just as directly engaged in affordable housing in the sense that it is probably the number one insurer protector and a promoter of of living wage jobs in the county, if not the state and maritime alone
It's upwards of ninety thousand, you know, wages
And so looking at the challenge of affordability from the income household income side and growing, closing the disparity, income wage disparity as a strategy, I wonder if you've you've tackled that in any way, directly or indirectly, but looking granted that we're never going to have the subsidies to cover the gap, but we can close the gap through wage growth and career ladder and pathways and so forth through those fantastic jobs that are directly and indirectly connected with port activities, maritime aviation
There's something for everybody there
Well, I'd be curious if you had any thoughts about that through your discussions through these
Well, or not? Not directly
I think that some of our employers are are very small
I mean, I've
People or less
And what I hear from them is they have jobs that they aren't able to fill all the time
And in some cases, their own cost structure prevents them from issuing higher wages
But for most of our employers, at least at the Bellevue Chamber, the issue of of their willingness to pay higher wages or potentially to address disparity is not is not a problem
They need to fill positions that that that they have
And I think that we can certainly be a convener of that discussion using employment security data about which high paying job clusters in the four or five suburban crescent are not filled
But more importantly, what are the emerging high page wage opportunities that we can make sure that we are able to fill? Yeah, exactly my point
Thank you
Sure, you're filming
You know, you touched on my favorite subject of sustainable fuels and things like that
So, you know, one of our top priorities this past legislative session was House Bill 11 10, which dealt with creating a low carbon fuel standard
And this is something that we really need to broaden this coalition
And so this is something, you know, you stepped in and we're following up
And but it really will matter not only for getting these lower polluting fuels into the system, but the jobs associated with producing them in the state
As we know, anything we produce here will be shipped to California, Oregon, where the standard exists
So it's really a very important piece of legislation that we continue to plug away at and we'd very much embrace having the chambers part of that discussion
So thank you for offering that
Joe, I want to go back to you, if you would
Mike, we go back to your slide showing all of the developments, not that one, the one right before that
I just wanted to, number one, say thank you for highlighting this, because this was really the crux of what I was hoping to get from this presentation
I think that in the past hour, conversations with each side have been more around tourism
And I've really been pushing folks to say we need to understand more about the business development that's happening east of Lake Washington
And so, you know, seven point five million square feet of commercial is huge
That's just amazing
So I
My question to you and you don't have to answer it now, but what more can the port do to partner with businesses on the east side? You know, we again, we have the tourism grant program waiver economic development grant program
But if you don't have an answer now, if you could just think about it over the next couple of weeks and we could get together and talk about it
But I just see us as a big partner
You are, you know, an enormous city, an enormous asset to the region
And we just want to be able to be more engaged in not just on the tourism side of things
Right
And I will welcome that conversation because I think there were a lot of different answers
The one that I just want to touch on briefly because it was discussed earlier, is having that greenlight access to the airport with, you know, remote terminal check in and things like that, isn't it? Q MR Metruck, are you hearing that remote terminal check? It's been a conversation that we've seen off and on for over a decade, but it's definitely one that the more interest from us
Right
Well, you know, I'll lean on you because I will say that I know that our staff and tried to reach out to some businesses to understand their level of interest, and we're not getting a response in my response to our staff was you should call Joe Fain
He can get into those businesses
So expect to call in the next week on that
Excellent
Great
And then I will say I'm going to do a little bit off script, but I think that you'll find this is good news
I believe MR Metruck in the in our external affairs team are about to put on the street a job description for our first fully dedicated staff person to cover the east side
This has been something that I've been pushing for for several years
And really, what I the intention is that you'll have somebody that will regularly attend the East King County chambers meetings, the Bellevue Chamber, Bellevue Rotary being wood, anvil Kirkland is a quasi ma'am ish, et cetera
So that there's really a port presence on the east side
And it's not just a couple of times a year
So I'm excited, MR Metruck, that we're moving forward with our position
I would just say that it is well recognized by folks in the community that the port has done a lot of outreach and is putting its putting its resources towards engaging the community in a way that maybe it hasn't been in decades prior
And so we appreciate your leadership and willingness to do that
Well, thank you
Anything else? No
Okay
Well, thank you very much, appreciate it
Good to see you again
All right
With that, this is where we're going to take up items that were removed from the consent calendar and be removed
Item three, see? Yes, Madam President
That's authorization to expend capital funds for project definition and preliminary design, unsustainable airport master plan, near-term projects in an amount not to exceed 10 million dollars, procure and execute professional service contracts, and enter into reimbursable agreements with the Federal Aviation Administration in relation to the relocation and adjustment of the runway 34 hour glide slope antenna as part of the taxiways and extension project
Commissioners, you were briefed on the side at the last meeting
This request seeks your approval to fund the scope and preliminary design for a number of aviation projects
As I mentioned earlier, the authorization before you in no way presupposes the outcome nor short circuits, the process for environmental review of our area of our airport masterplan near-term projects
This item supports only the initial phase of project definition and preliminary design
For that reason, these expenditures are considered at risk, as we discussed in our previous presentation
Since there is no certainty that these projects will go forward into detailed design and later construction, however, these projects are well worth the potential cost and schedule gains that they are anticipated to provide
Carrie Stevens will be available to answer questions and carry, I don't know with that lead in if you wanted to add anything in that regard
Before we open it up to questions from the commission
Put a microphone there
Carrie Stevens with aviation capital prograMS I think Steve did a good lead into that for the most part
We did that briefing at the last commission meeting
I could go through, you know, additional presentation here, go through some of the slides, or we could just answer questions, whatever you guys prefer
Any questions? I'm not going to
I don't mean to put him on the spot
MR Steinberg was out of town, so we wanted to make sure that he had the opportunity as well as others
I think that's important
Again, MR Archer, thank you for highlighting this
Is design at risk? And so this is not presupposing the samp process at all
But from my read on this issue is that I would prefer it'll save us time and money if we can get started on it again
But no formal decisions are made, but at least given you the ability to do some initial design work
I think the one that's really particularly exciting to the community is the change in the flight slope potential and there are like five projects
So can you just briefly touch on the five batteries? I think, MR Steinberg, you know, I actually want to just hear an enumeration of the five projects and also to be absolutely clear that there is no bricks and mortar funding associated with this
It's all soft funding
And I'm also guessing and not having heard the briefing at the last meeting due to my absence that that some of this work is necessary regardless of any future expansion plans
I gather that we're already at the point where we need to be moving in this direction on some of some of this effort
I would say with regards to that, this this work will help inform us for a lot of different situations in the future
So help us make decisions in the futures is really what this work will help us do
This is a project definition, preliminary design type work
It's conceptual
Still at this phase, if I may, Pete Randall's general counsel for the poor
Just to explain a little further for the public that
Vermin of view will be complete, these projects will not proceed
They will not be implemented
That no bricks and mortar until the commission after environmental review makes that decision
And yes, the information developed through this preliminary design work will help make those decisions
Or it might actually help with some options, too, that are part of the bigger picture
So, yeah
Thank you
So I'm going to quickly, you know, the overview
You know, the what our project planning process was, what the near term projects again
This is are our standard sample map that we that we show for the near term projects are and then get into the projects requiring preliminary design that we're asking for right now, 10 million for the five projects and then a little bit more information on that glide slope antenna
And the next steps
So currently, of course, the master planning that is that has been completed is in review
We all know that we're still progressing through advanced planning
We've been progressing since about 2017
Been going through a lot of the advanced planning
Looking at, you know, different different types of site planning, basically
And you can kind of view it as master planning at around, you know, one hundred thousand feet advanced planning gets us down to maybe 50 or 30000 feet
And then preliminary design probably more down to the 10000 foot level
And then then we get into detailed design
And that is not what we're requesting at this point in time
Though stamped near term projects, hopefully everyone's well well versed in this and understands, you know, all the different projects that we have associated
We're just focused on on five of them
Some of them are enabling and some of them are somewhat efficiency in nature
So I'll go through those projects
This is actually just a you know, a look at some of our critical path, really, and some of the linkages that we have
You can see all of everything in green is really detailed design
And then in the the purple, that would be the construction period
This is in the in the sample documentation
And we are still not at this point for detailed design
And we do
We do note in there that we would be coming back to commission if we wanted to request that
So looking for it would be looking for that authority in the future, but still still waiting for the environmental review to go forward
Not presuppose, Carrie, to add to this
Commissioner Steinberg, it was clearly laid out is that we're talking to the to the left of the green of the green timeline is where the projects of the work that we're talking about now
That was originally cleared
So thank you for that
But me just point out the five projects in that thing
Well, here's here's the five right here
And the schedules pulled pulled together for those five projects
Again, you know, we can see that the detailed design as per the sample documentation was going to start sometime in 2020
But again, that's that's all
All would be
As part of the environmental review and figuring out what our timing really would be with the authorization if we get a successful environmental review
So like I said, these are conceptual in nature project definition, preliminary design, they allow us to get more reliable budgets and schedules
It's not detailed design, but rather capital planning
So the port is better prepared following the completion of the samp environmental review
Granted, the required approvals are in place and we're of course in this phase before the detailed design
And I think there is something else that Pete said that, you know, basically overall, this should actually help inform some of the environmental review
Some of the details that we get out of this out of this process, out of this stage would help inform environmental review
So first project that we have here is the West Side maintenance campus, and I just want to go through following the number one arrow there
And back to the red building
Our current building is is our aviation maintenance building
It was in the red there
It's built in 1969 as a male sort facility
It's past its useful life
It has significant issues and will require additional investment if we keep it, keep it moving or keep it alive for for a longer period of time
Currently, houses are vehicle maintenance, carpenter and paint shops and field crew spaces
It has locker rooms, office break areas for one hundred and twenty plus employees
So currently that facility is shown to be moving to the west side of the of the airfield in the in in the samp documentation
So it's a it's a better approach, more appropriate location for that type of structure
The second was the the aircraft rescue and firefighting station, also known as RF
So coming back from number two, back to the red red building, that's our existing primary, our facility
This facility was built in 1979
It has outlived its useful life, has significant infrastructure and utility issues
And it is is currently undersized for our current activity
And his location has proven operationally difficult for our current airfield complex
We also it will also need continued investment until it is decommissioned
And then as you're probably aware, Sam shows the primary station moving over to the snow shed
Our park, our site on the west side of the of the of the airfield
This is the new primary
And an additional
This this new primary and additional east side station attached to our what we consider our future gates on the east side allows us to demo the current structure of the current structure to make way for Gates in that area, according to the stamp stamp documentation
Number three was roadway improvements
This is the North Airfield Expressway relocation
So for the southbound lanes primary, primarily, this project moves the roadways to make way for an expanded airfield and north gates
But the project will also clear up some alignment issues that we currently have
The Widened Arrivals Drive Project, which you guys approved for development in past February commission meeting
We'll perform a major portion of that alignment and bottleneck cleanup, but this will be the final phase of that just to to clean up that alignment
This we consider this to be one of the most complex spaces in all of Samp and something that will take us quite some time to actually get a better handle on
Get understanding for project definition so that we have all the project linkages, all the utility requirements
There's quite a few utilities that run through there, including a lot of FAA utilities that will need to be ahead of the game on number four
We have taxiway A B expansion
So this is currently a single taxiway at the end of the south airfield
This project provides for dual taxiways, which will increase aircraft efficiency, reduce passenger delay, delay and on the ground before takeoff
The extension requires the relocation of the glide slope antenna, which we would plan to move to either a three or three point one degree approach angle
This this raises the elevation of the aircraft and should reduce noise for communities to the to the south of their airfield
And this is the one that our SeaTac advisory roundtable have commented on and requested us to move forward with
So we are currently working with FAA on that and have done quite a bit of work in developing that and need to start into development of a reimbursable agreement, which is part of this request is to go into a reimbursable agreement with the FAA on design and construction of this of the glide slope antenna work
And the last one that I wanted to talk about was the main terminal North Ground Transportation Lot facility, that's number five there, it's basically off the north end of the of the garage
This is currently our cruise and charter lot area
The facility in Samp is proposed as a multi-storey building, housing, airline and airport support, potentially other passenger amenities to include processing
The facility would house the cruise and charter functions as well as the main terminal elevated bus guide way station
It is also intended to provide a connection to our light rail station, providing better conditions, space and a new front door for those passengers traveling on light rail
We need to do this project, we need to provide the project definition because of the Widen Rivals project that is immediately adjacent to it, just so that we can understand the structure and understand the utility requirements between these two projects
So that's our plan to move this thing forward so that we can get a better understanding of those aspects
In general, I ask for a little more detail on how this would affect or improve the connection to light rail
What was the relationship there? So, you know, we've we've looked at this and said that this could have a potential to be conditioned space
So currently the space that we connect between light rail and and the main terminal is non conditioned
And so this could be a facility where we actually have a conditioned route
So providing some passenger comfort
Okay
Thanks
Any other questions? Well, we thank you for that
I think you can go and glide slope a little bit
I mean, I consulted a lot about glide slope
But, you know, the HB requires the relocation of of that of that antenna
Our current glide slope antennas are set at three degrees for their approach angle
This this end of the long runway is actually set at two point seventy five degrees
So this would raise up it
That approach angle so that the aircraft would be higher on approach
There's a lot of procedural work that has to occur with the FAA, specifically procedures for aircraft, and that is going to take some time
So there's actually a couple of years built into the schedule to make sure that that is worked out ahead of time
Any other questions, MR Feldman? I think you've covered
We talked about a glide slope pretty extensively in the last meeting
Does I mean, it's a much bigger deal than I think most people think in terms of it's a small degree, but in terms of what it takes to actually achieve that, can you just briefly explain how why it's such a big lift? Well, I mean, this is this is what all of our aircraft, if they're coming in from the south, how they are approaching there, they're monitoring this with their equipment
And so I'm talking about the physical, the physical, the physical
You know, the physical relocation should not be that that challenging
But the procedure side of things is where, you know, this is aircraft movement in the air, air aircraft safety
So it's it's very regimented the way we have to go through this process
And it takes a while working with FAA, working with their their flight procedures to verify, validate that this relocation is going to be, you know, effective and at the same time safe
The thing I came up, Kerry, and the other discussion I think MR Olmert was looking at, this is complex
Nothing is level on our air fields
So when we have to move, move this, it is a complex UN
Nothing's impossible for engineers
I understand that
But but it is
But it is difficult
It will involve the amount of work to make this happen
Definitely the I think maybe, you know, some of the work that we had done preliminarily looking at the planning side of things
We had looked at moving the glide slope antenna to the west side of the runway, and that was creating a massive amount of fill
A big retaining wall, you know, millions of cubic yards of fill in in a in a wetland area
So that in itself was extremely complex
But the work that we have done with FAA has been able to kind of pull that back into a much more agreeable space
So moving that antenna, the the current proposal that we have with the FAA, which they are it does sound like they're in agreement with, is to slide it and move it a little bit further closer to the to the airfield, but still be within there their safety regulations
Any other questions? No
Ok
Well, then I will call for approval of I
Actually, I think I have to move it
First item
I'm sorry
3C
Thank you
It's been moved
That's second
Okay
It's been moved in second
Thank you
All those in favor of adoption of item 8 3 C please indicate by saying I I
All those opposed nay i's have it
All right
Thank you very much
We'll look forward to getting updates as you move along in the preliminary design process
I think we've got just a one more presentation on the main terminal, a day's briefing on the main terminal optimization plan for CNN International Airport
Commissioners at this briefing will inform you about the strategic roadmap for optimizing SeaTac Airport's main terminal infrastructure and operations to accommodate growing demand during the period between present day potential implementation of enhanced initiatives
Please note that at our next public meeting we'll be presenting a request to fund the first project recommended in this plan
The presenters are Mandy
She got us close
Close the door
The chorus
I'm sorry
Tucker
Tucker Field
And just to add, I mean, the discussion about this is optimization between the master plan work and this
And this is a great time, especially when we talk about the east side and all all the growth there and how we serve them in R.K
with the aviation side
So take it away
So good afternoon, commissioner
Is Executive Director Metruck right? I think it's close enough
There we go
I mean, he's a aggress with Aviation Capital Programs Department
I'm here with my colleague Tucker Fields with the Aviation Planning Department to provide a briefing on this exciting study that we've been working on, exploring projects that will address the congestion and elevate the level of service in the main terminal at SeaTac Airport
So as you're aware, SeaTac has been experiencing an increasing demand in the main terminal facility with the continued passenger growth in recent years
This has resulted in crowded ticket lobbies, long checkpoint lines and congestion in the main terminal
So in 2016, the port initiated the main terminal optimization plan or m top for short to provide a strategic plan to optimize the existing footprint and infrastructure and top addresses the need to accommodate our customers and create a balance facility that will provide a better level of service for our customers at SeaTac
The primary objective of M Top was to provide a strategic plan for the future phased enhancements to the main terminal to ultimately create a balanced and properly sized facility for our current and projected number of growing passengers
All of the projects that were going to talk about today felt inside of the terminal and do not extend the footprint of the building
One of the key components of the main terminal optimization plan was the robust gap analysis that we performed to identify where we have level of service issues in the main terminal
Tucker will be walking through that shortly
During this Gap analysis, we focused on functional areas
Functional areas are the footprints that make up each area that the passenger travels through and their journey through SeaTac like ticket counters, checkpoints, restrooms, baggage claim and retail spaces
Each functional area was assessed based on its current operational efficiency and their ability to handle current and future passenger activity
This is defined as by industry accepted standards for wait time goals and functional requirements
The analysis of each area considered distinct characteristics of our current operators and our existing configurations
The Gap analysis compares future requirements to the current airport facilities where we analyzed processing efficiencies and passenger throughput in each functional area
The next step in our analysis was comparing the efficiency of these areas and their passenger throughput as they are currently configured against the level of service for our passengers
When I turn it over to Tucker to talk about how the main terminal in its current state is causing our level of service to deteriorate as our passenger numbers continue to grow and how projects informed by the main terminal optimization plan can help us create a better experience for our customers at
To determine level of service in this study, we're using industry standard metrics
By using these definitions to aim for an optimum level of service shown here in green
We can be confident that we're providing adequate space and a stable experience for our customers while on the other hand, not over allocating space that could be used
Any overallocation would push us into the over design category shown here in Orange above the optimum
Under provided the level of service shown here in red describes any process that has failed
The small diagrams on the left show rough cartoon examples of densities that equate to the various levels of service
To give you a bit of a mental image, um, when I say the goal of the study is to hit that sweet spot of
I ask, where are we right now in regard to this level of service lines away from saying, OK
All right
Sorry
Yeah
We will go into that
This so slide, this shows a real world example of what it can look like when SeaTac exceeds our available resources
This is what we would call them under provided scenario
Optimal security wait times at the main SeaTac security checkpoint are ideally between about five and 15 minutes, and the wait time shown here can be more than 70 minutes
The top gap analysis, when coupled with C tax predicted demand in the future, can give valuable insight into how often we can see these unacceptable levels of service for our past
So here's the slide I was referring to
So understanding this slide is a lot to unpack, but I'll walk you through the specifics
But this snapshot represents the conclusions of the Gap analysis
The chart on the left shows the existing functional areas Mandy spoke about earlier and how their performance deteriorates as the passenger
As you can see, the areas that are represented with green indications are providing and or exceeding an optimal level of service
Tucker, what is the projected passengers for twenty nine? Twenty twenty nine based on the projections that we used for this project
It was fifty nine
So the areas with red identify functions that are experiencing under provided levels of service, meaning that they are crowded, uncomfortable and have unaccepted wait times, as in the pictures we showed on the previous
These are averaged over throughout the year
They're not reflective of these levels of service, actual level of service
They're representative of putting this passenger volume demand on to the resources that we have available at these different years
Yeah, but this take your 20 19
This is representative of the level of service average throughout a year period
It would seem to me also important to see what happened during peak season and how these levels of service deteriorate
Right
So this
This was calculated over a peak demand period
It is peak demand
Not so it's not this area
It's not a raw LB average of processing across the year
It is representative of the peak
Ok
You might want to note that in future on this chart that this is peak demand
Okay
So we know that it's looking at the extreme conditions
The purple line represents what we have defined as the design basis for the plan
The design basis of our top aims to provide adequate levels of service in the main terminal over the next decade
As any of you who have recently flown could attest to, I'm sure see tax main challenges, passenger screening
What you may not know is that the checking in hall is not too far behind
The team decided to focus on these two areas as the priority of the main terminal optimization and have created a realistic roadmap to attack levels of service in these critical bottlenecks
The chart to the right shows how level of service could be improved through the implementation of this plan
Unfortunately, hold rooms level of service could not be improved without expanding the building footprint, which is not feasible at this time
But you'll notice that the airport's most efficient areas have greatly improved
Is there is there no possibility through the changes that are occurring with ticketing that our expediting and reducing space? I think
Needed for ticketing, so it could could be could serve the hold, hold room space in the future
We looked into that and the actual the the math behind the plans was about 400 pages of a ton of work that our colleagues at Ricardo and Associates, the consultant team that helped us out with this plan, looked into
And part of it was how much can the requirements change over time? Percentage wise, we kind of bumped it up a little bit, write it down a little bit, requirements wise to see how the sensitivity would look if something like that was to happen, if there was a change in operation or if the operation became more efficient or if it became less efficient
What that type of requirement would be
And we found that it's it's
It's not it's not so much that we felt the need to change that
Yeah, it just it just from appearances seems like the ticket in space is generous with respect to the whole space
And whether there's some room to make some longer term adjustments there and through through higher efficiencies and the ticketing processing side of things
Just just a question
I think it's a great question because I was sort of along those lines we spoke earlier
I mean, I think clearly as folks go to electronic tickets, I don't remember last time I printed out a ticket
I only used my phone
I go directly to security
But of course, the biggest issue with ticketing is that people are checking in bags
And so if we had more ability to do remote bag check in off of the airport, perhaps that could be something
So I know that there have been two different study
I think that you've looked a little bit at this and we've had the quote unquote, Eastside Bag's remote checking study
But it just seems like that going down the road, that could be a big efficiency if we can find a way to get people to not bring their bags directly to the airport and wait in line
Right
It could be if we can get the volumes that we need to move the needle
Right
And just to reiterate what you were saying, these numbers here for check and haul
We talked about it a little bit in the functional areas piece, but that we're looking at those as baggage acceptance points, not actual ticket counter positions
So even this red deficiency is just places where you can input a bag, not necessarily a person standing there
You can check it
Right
Because we're where all the electronic differences
Right
We'd like to hope for those efficiency gains, but we're not
We're still looking at it kind of the worst
But I guess that's my question, though, is that I appreciate that that idea, but then couldn't we be driving towards finding efficiencies pushed, planning for efficiencies in other areas, driving towards that, rather than just planning for worst case scenario? Does that make sense? Yeah
So this is kind of what what we're showing here is if we were to especially with the chart on the right, the green is if we're where we were to implement a kind of middle of the road
So we have a super high technology and a really low
OK
Algae
And what we're doing is kind of middle of the road
Ok, that's help efficiencies
OK
Thank you
We're aware of both sides
OK
So the projects that make the chart here on the right possible make up what we call the top strategic vision
But before we take a look at the strategic vision, I want to point out something else
Near the middle of the left chart, you'll notice that there's a vertical dash line depicting the actual 2018 activity
I want to call it out because you'll notice it also does not line up with the year 2018 on the chart
We've seen demand at the airport grow even faster than what was projected in 2017, which was the data snapshot that was used for this study
Based on current trends, we're expecting that the airport will see these degraded levels of service three years sooner than what was anticipated by
I would like to go back to the point my two colleagues just put up
Given that we're running into trouble sooner, shouldn't we be looking at something beyond the middle of the road scenario? And so if I understand your point was that maybe the return on investment is at this point thought of and it's not being that great
The greater automation may not get us that much, but it seems to me that we should really be turning over every rock
Oh, I did I and so when you when you say just maybe you can explain what you meant by middle of the road in terms of if we went to the most advanced imaginable
George Jetson situation, right? How much better would we move the needle? It would help
I don't want to say exact percentages
I'm not sure
But the problem is, is it's not just the availability and the workings of the technology
It's also regulatory
As you know, so the ability of TSA and FAA to catch up with those technological advancements has shown to drag the stuff behind
So while certain passenger improvements may
Be out there already
That we could install and that could help if the regulatory isn't there at the same time
Then we can't we can't bank on those improvements
And the transitions could be eroding even the current surface, right? Just that anyway, if there were, you know, things that we could also be advocating for
Right
So, you know, point us in the right direction
And it's obviously this accelerated degradation of service is not something we should just accept
Based on iterative workshop discussion and debate on these advantages and disadvantages of multiple configurations, the project team, support staff and airport stakeholders selected a three zone concept
This concept provided a balance between the operational efficiency of consolidated facilities with the redundancy and adjacency provided by three screening areas flanking to enhance check in areas
The final vision of the plan illustrates in red two new consolidated checkpoints in the south and center areas of the main terminal
A new checkpoint on the baggage level and maintains the current northern security checkpoint
Existing linear ticket counters will be reconfigured by consolidating the seven existing zones into two primary areas between the three check
Did in blue
The this new flow through reconfiguration, Batali utilizes the available depth in the non secure areas and provides greater operational flexibility by placing more efficient kiosk and backdrops functions in the front of the hall with full service agent counters in the rear
This new configuration there is now adequate available passenger circulation between functions as the queuing for each area can now be self-contained
While this vision is ideal, it will be a complex process to get there from where we are today
So now that I've run you through the why, I'll let Mandy tell you about the
Ok
So unfortunately, we can't shut down the airport for a couple of years while we construct all of these projects
So we've proposed a series of incremental improvement projects to optimize the functional areas of the main terminal
This graphic outlines a potential sequence of the proposed projects
But as we know, with all plans of this size, this will need to flex with our operational needs as we move through implementation
So these 14 projects aim to accelerate the implementation of operational improvements, increase our passenger level of service in the ticketing lobby and security checkpoints, mitigate impacts to existing capacities and facilities
Leverage existing areas and infrastructure and isolate construction areas to minimize passenger impact during construction
The implementation of the main terminal optimization plan begins with the relocation of Checkpoint 1 to the baggage claim level to provide early relief to a constrained facility prior to the implementation of other optimization projects
That project is outlined in the call out in labeled as number one
The team will be bringing that project to commission for funding authorization to further develop and design that project in September
Our next two projects will include the expansion of checkpoint three to the north, our central checkpoint
This is found in the center of this graphic in the upper right hand corner and labeled with a number three
And the third project is a build out of the currently unconditioned promenade space to the side of the airport, Sky Bridges
These areas will be used for airline ticketing offices that will be displacing when we implement the optimized flow through ticket counter design campus wide
That project is not shown on this graphic, but it would span the length of the upper drive on the sky bridge level
Sounds expensive
We have not looked at it and we do not have a current budget
Ok, so these projects will create some breathing room for us to further implement the plan and begin to address our declining passenger level of service at SeaTac
And with that, we conclude our briefing
And we are happy to take any questions
I have a couple of men who can go back to the previous slide
Thank you so much
At some point I'd really like
I think we all need quite a bit more detail on these projects because this is the first time that we're hearing about this
And so I think it's a good initial overview and appreciate that
But really a lot of detail about what is involved and then also timeline
I understand that you might not have the dollar amount yet, but as we just saw from the previous presentation, when you would think about going into design, one potential construction would go
So we really need quite a bit more detail
I know
I don't think Jeffrey's in
It just looks like Jeffrey's in the room or Lance
But I would please give that message, Steve, back to him
This is a an enormous undertaking
And so I think before we get too far along
I mean, they're all critical areas, but we need to see the big picture
Do you think I'd ask is you mentioned or in the memo? It's mentioned on page two at the bottom of the second paragraph that this was done with government taken into consideration
Industry trends
Government agency initiatives
Predefined level service schools and stakeholder objectives
Were the airlines consulted? You were we had four workshops with the airlines altogether and then we had several individual workshops with different airlines that requested them
OK
And you feel confident that they are bought into is what's the process by which they would provide? I mean, do we feel confident, Steve, that they've bought into this plan? I understand
I haven't spoken myself about this
I'll talk with the staff
I understand they are supportive of these efforts
But what? Well, I'm sure we'll hear if they're not, at least for the first project, that Checkpoint 1 relocation
The only feedback we've heard is why can't you do it sooner? So as far as our our very first project
Again, this the main terminal optimization plane is just that
It's a plan
It's showing us what's possible, a possible way that we could do all of these things
But each one of these projects will be developed at as their own thing
And so as we go through, if TSA regulations, change of airline operations change, if you know, some new ticketing technology comes out, then all of these will flex and they'll and they'll potentially change
But when we started in 2016, realizing that we had this issue and that our passenger numbers were going to continue to grow, we wanted to at least create some kind of roadmap to be able to show where we could create breathing room, where we could kind of use spaces that were underutilized right now and move forward
So all this this may change
It's a you understood
You know, it's it's it's a great first start
I think, again, just the more details I can
When I was reading through it over the weekend, I just thought it would make sense to move a checkpoint down to baggage claim
But then I thought about the circulation
How do you actually is I can mean more escalators
And then certainly that's a big change in how people would approach the airport if they're now thinking
It's just it's going to be a large change
It's not an insignificant
And we'll be coming
I believe we're on the agenda for September 24th to come back and talk to you about that
We'll be asking for additional funds to kind of look at it further
All these details
We're not at the design level yet
It's similar to the sample right before the green the green bar
So but those are all things that we've looked at
So I think reflecting, commissioner, reflecting back on the previous presentation that looked at all the projects and potential timelines for those, I think that would be useful here
I think I hear that's what I'm looking for, like
Right
And even though we think numbers of sequencing things
Yes
Yes, sequencing all of that
Yeah
And I know we have some of that pre worked out
And so I would be happy to go back and work with our consulting team and think we get
MR Feldman, and the the other thing is if we start making plans and then we hear a phase thinking about changing the
The rules in these are sort of things that we should have in common letters and conversations with our congresspeople, and so once we start investing based on an assumption that this is the way, it's because we've already experiences with IAF, obviously
But, you know, the more forethought you can give us if you hear that that this would jeopardize this project
You know, earlier is better just so we can defend this effort and not be set back
Absolutely
Yeah
And as we go through and develop each one of those projects and those are conversations that we will continue to have, we've been working really closely with our airline technical rap to make sure that the airlines are engaged and we will continue to bring those forward as we implement this plan
Think you're super, I think kind of cute
Well, I would like to very much second, the desire to have a projection at least of your intended timeline for completion of these various projects
I think there needs to be a sense of urgency put on us
It's the stresses are are being experienced everyday by travelers and I'm sure employees at that
We just need to have a sense of urgency
Is it my understanding that this is not at all in any way tied to the SAP near-term projects? Correct
It is not
This is this goes forward
There's no this is this is investing in our existing book
That's what I thought
And I would also add that I think, well, in addition to other comments that Commissioner Bowman made, that regarding the cost projections timeline, I think there really needs to be some public communication around what we're doing, what we're intending to do to improve the traveler experience and reduce these long lines and these stress points that are occurring all over
I mean, I don't think people know that this is in the works
They think that some you know, they they want to assign blame or incompetence or inefficiencies
And everybody's got some solution to how to fix the problem
But it's far more complex than meets the eye
And challenging given is basically a house remodel without expanding the footprint to make it work better and more efficiently with a whole lot more children in the house
Exactly
So I would suggest if we're not already thinking about this, that there be a strong, robust communication plan that that is and fairly soon, too, especially during the peak season
You know, maybe you'd be better prepared next year and to tell the public what we're doing, you know, what work is underway and that we hope to see relief, you know, in our lifetime instantly
Okay
I know that I think Kyra 7 did it and did an interview and the presentation came out talking about the Checkpoint 1 relocation
And so, yeah, it started a little bit
But we let's be intentional about it and let's be comprehensive about that needs to be put in terms that people can understand, obviously
So, yeah, yeah
We want to make sure that you guys were briefed before we know
That's for sure
Calkins, a few questions for you
So can you go back to slides? I think it is
It's that one right there
No, sorry
One sign it was so
All of this, I think, is pushing toward an improvement in a metric that Lance has talked to us about
There's sort of two metrics that I recall
One is clock tower to gate, which I believe was forty five minutes
Is the goal to never exceed that? Right
Because if if people if we're exceeding that regularly, they they plan their trips based on the worst possible, not the average
And so really driving at getting people from clock tower to gate under 45 minutes
And I believe it's curbside to get in or
No
Sorry
Security is maybe 15 minutes through security under 50 minutes
That's my understanding
So for me, those are the marquee numbers, the metric that we're driving out with all of these projects and the echo
Commissioner Steinberg's point
We hear this
I mean, I'm certainly in the in the visibility I have into the campaign season right now
I know the candidates are talking about and are hearing about what the public wants from their port of Seattle is a shortened security lines, shortened congestion at the getting into the airport
And I think all of these are essentially working towards that
So with that in mind, one of my specific questions on this here is I know that curbside real estate is a significant issue both in these projects and in our other projects
And so my concern with what I see up here is that we've taken ticketing, which would effectively span the entirety of this, and now we've shrunk it down a little bit
And so if you are, say, going to one of the ticketing areas currently on the south side
Are we going to change signage all the sudden since ticketing and thereby consolidate the actual curbside where people would be dropping off? Or would we try to maintain all the curbside for unrepresented, curbside for check in and ticketing, even though security occupies a part of that concourse? So there's a couple of things
One thing to note
When we did our calculations and looking at these blue areas is that the blue areas would be common use
So we would have the operational flexibility to assign them to any airline based on an on passenger flow and things like that
Having a another checkpoint relocated to the baggage claim level we think will change a little bit
We've been referring to it as our cheater checkpoint, where you can have your Uber drop you off there if you're a savvy traveler
We know that because of it, because you're not you don't have to actually check bags and utilize the app and you can just kind of zoom through
We also think that a lot of our international passengers will use this checkpoint because of its location to the south satellite
You would go through, take one escalator down and you're out the train
We are currently working on another project, which we're hoping to bring to you outside of M Top early next year, which is digital signage initiative on the drives where we would also have that operational flexibility, too
As we've been referred to, it stretched the drives where we would have that digital signage on the upper and lower and we could work with our operations team to kind of change and depending on what the schedules are and help with some of those issues
So it is something that we're aware of
But but one of the key things to this, this plan is going more common use than specifically Alaska Airlines is, you know, you sort of addressed this in this in the promenade option
But I'm wondering, you know, I think we have some flex spaces actually in the garage that we use for certain things
And I'm wondering if there is any potential for, you know, doing any sort of baggage drop off there, as put it, before they even get into the terminal
And it's things that we're investigating
There's a lot of technical challenges behind getting those bags across the drive and into the terminal
So it's things we're exploring
It's just not we don't feel like it's for the are enough along to
In a sense, take credit in this plan right now
And what about right at the light rail station so that we know that people are not pleased that they have to walk all the way to the terminal? If they weren't any longer dragging their bags with them
So consideration of maybe bag check right at the light rail station as opposed to having people come in
I'd encourage you to put that on your list of considerations
It is I think that Tucker's saying is that it's still trying to transmit the bags from whatever spot to write it sic through security
That said, though, which is not on you, but I will put this on on the the rest of the team that was looking at the Eastside Bag study
I know that there's an effort to look at doing remote bag check in at the rental car facility
So if we can do it there, we could do it at the either in the garage or somewhere else
So, Steve, I'd ask that this make sure that this effort is coordinated, that it's not just it's not even imagining a series of pneumatic tubes that suck
That's commission that well
Yes, Commissioner
Well, we'll look at this
But I know as we looked at the E side bag, check in as a standalone program, the logistics involved with that
So there are difficulties and cocoons is just pointed that out
There is no easy logistical everything else going on to do that
But we will examine those as we're looking at the options to do that, to try to look at and keep or look at things and those increases that we have
The airlines have something to say about that
They're not in all a group agreement with this remote checking and they take a certain responsibility for the baggage and delivery in its timely delivery
So I would I think whatever solutions it has to be worked through the airlines, to the major airlines
And I have a couple more questions real quick
Yeah, sure
That's my project as well
So I I we are very, very much looking into things like
Another common request we get is for additional dining and retail options on the non sterile side
And I'm hearing that that's some of the most space constrained area
And yet I think right now we have
The wine place and forgetting the name of it, eh? Washington wants it into Washington, vintage Washington
We've got the ALC bakery
There's a Starbucks, but there really is no
There are not many options for dining and retail on the on the non sterile side
So does this contemplate any expansion there? Unfortunately, it's to the opposite end
What you're hoping for, but it's because being limited by the building footprint, you kind of have to rob Peter to pay Paul to get these functional areas up and running and get these security
So food trucks in the parking garage
Maybe so that you have the less operational critical functions end up losing
Okay
And finally, I'm I want to kind of peer back a little bit into recent history when airlines shifted from a, you know, free baggage policy to now increasing
Costs room for checked baggage and then the no frills airlines taking a larger share of the market
I imagine that creates some consumer incentives that that impact the way we consider this, too, so that, you know, I think about can I make this a carry on only trip? And so does that kind of change in airline policy impact how we consider some of these things? That's one of the things I think those speaking about or that were tried to imagine, but something like that going through the baggage fees, baggage per passenger, changing as much as it has over the last 10 years
We'll try to keep those sensitivities in mind
But it is a guessing game, especially airline policies and things like that
But we keep in contact with them
So hopefully we can get ahead of that story whenever
And I think that that less baggage was built into our range of that
What I was talking about before with the higher technology was less baggage, more and more automated things like that
So that that is part of the range
And we're kind of taking a middle of the road approach as far as are our estimates going forward
I want to see MR Calkins travel with no bags with his children
I have have looked at any use of the mezzanine level
Yes, we did
So as part of this 3 zone configuration, which we're showing here, we actually showed all ticketing on the ticketing level and moving all of the check in
Excuse me
All of the screening threw up on the mezzanine level, but the vertical gold, sir, circulation and our current infrastructure, it just wasn't viable
It was one of the options that dropped out in Austin, vertical circulation
It wasn't just it was a lot of escalators and elevators
I mean, the cost is, you know, and the question is there's also a cost of not doing things right
So, I mean, if it's physically not a good idea, we'd like to be at least presented with opportunities to look at costs if indeed they solve problems, if again, it doesn't get to the way it doesn't get to the issue than it is
And not just cost, but in terms of the complexity of the passenger journey, changing levels multiple times, having to backtrack things like that
Just once we planned it out, it just
Which which was my other point
Given that we're sort of like in the Etch a sketch phase of airplane airport development
That's my technical term that the idea that you mentioned about like digital signage
Things are going to change
And we keep on talking about having as signage plan for the airport
I mean, the plan should be flexibility apps, right
And so I'm less concerned of what they look like than the information they can impart, because everybody feels a little bit of loss lost at some point in time, whether it be how to find the cab or whatever, you know
And so are we really moving to that throughout the airport? Yes
So we've been we've been highly engaged with our FBI department, looking at them, implementing their signage away, fighting masterplan, making sure that it's linked to this M top initiative
They've done some of the digital signage in Zone 1 and 2, which is where international carriers are, where we're able to have that flexibility
And I think that we've seen really great return on investment in that area
But that is what we'll be expanding
Excuse me
So our project will be the rest of the ticketing lobby and then the upper and lower drives will be all of that digital signage which are just listing on the light rail
I was recently had the pleasure of
When you stop
It doesn't say, you know, main terminal
Baggage claim
Who is the
You know, it's like changing light rail or the tram, the tram
I'm sorry
Okay
It's like it's like thus stop
No, I mean, in terms of signage, I mean, I see people asking each other, is this the one? Is this one? I mean, it just has and I've mentioned this to Lance before, but that's not the main terminal baggage claim
It just it's it's you know, I've listened for it and I've watched passengers on the tram wondering about it
I know that they've been making some changes to this
I did notice I did notice something, but it still didn't say it
I will I will be happy to take
I think, you know, that kind of operation
You don't mean I go the route
Yeah, I know that they've recently made some changes
I will take that back
Fisher Steinberg back
I wanted to follow up on one of Commissioner Cochran's points regarding the priest security amenities
Areas and limit limits there
And that's something that's been a big change over the years since the security measures were put in place
And demand is increased for check points and queue lines and so forth
But one area that I I'm pleased to see you're not messing with, I think, is that Gina Marie Lindsey atrium space, which I think is one of the most, you know, least stressful areas where people can hang out, relax in the rocking chair
Yep
Enjoy time with family before departure, which was really virtually no
Nowhere else
Pre security to do that anymore
Sure
And I hope that that is going to be retained
And I think there's a potential to have some perhaps some more concessions there
I don't know if space permitting, but so that there's a little bit more of a service area also for you know, for retail concessions limited in that area
But I'd heard what at one point there was talk about a a checkpoint there utilizing that and at another checkpoint
So it was it was something that was brought into the conversation, at least know alternatives
And I believe it is very quickly
OK
Could you do that making right now as these people don't want to see? Yeah, that's the way it is
And it's also I think the environment there is more relaxed because it's not a throughput area either so much
It's just it's at the end
It's a little bit more difficult to access, but being at this out
But I just hope that that will be retained for and remain a casual, comfortable space for people to spend some time away from the hustle and bustle
The other question I had for you
I'm guessing you've looked at this, but there's a lot of letting of freeways these days
What about letting the the access drive more? We have sky bridges across it
That's what the promenade is
Correct? The prominent is close to the sky bridges
So if you cross the sky bridge from the garage into that main terminal and you come into the landing where you can either take the escalator up or down
I didn't know that they were there for years
But if you look to your left or right, there's actually unconditioned space
It's behind a door
So it would be enclosing map, but it wouldn't necessary
We're not right now proposing extending over that
But is it possible has that been looked at as of as feasible? I know that there's code issues
It's a parking garage, a different use of fire separation that a dog
But these looked at in very, very early investigation
But yeah, I think it was taken much further, really
And it is very difficult
Costly
Of course
Yeah
But it would mean, given our our space constraints, its airspace right now that Commissioner Simon, I did see a drawing or going on for the in the early stages of the samp investigations there
Is that right? Is it potential to sort of push a lot of the terminal back towards the parking garage? I know it was considered at least for that, but I would also suggest on the middle I'm sorry, in the middle of the boomerang that, again, any central area to kind of live that area and get some more floor space
It's something that we could further explore after the environmental reviews, because it would be a change of that footprint that it would be
Yeah
Okay
And I'd
One area with regard to the ADR sort of non sterile ADR thing
It'll be interesting to see if we can extend or expand the day pass program, because I think part of the consideration around
Having dining options in the non sterile is when somebody is on layover and they come to see a loved one in the area that loved one can't get through security
And so if we can offer a more of those and be
On demand, as opposed to 24 hours in advance, somebody comes to the airport to meet a loved one and they discover they can actually go through security to meet their loved one or that layover, period
I think that would be an interesting option provided they have real I.D., passport, that kind of thing
I believe the commercial management group is still working on that, but yeah, I agree
I also just wanted to note that this the main terminal optimization plane doesn't touch the baggage claim level
So I know that they've been expanding their retail and food offerings down there so those those won't be touched by part of this project
One more thought to throw into the mix
I think this is pretty design right now
This is plan B at the planning stage, acknowledge
I would hope to see that the quality and character and aesthetics of the main terminal be made an important priority as well for the quality of that experience and its expression
And I think it could be much more than it is now and a much more attractive, pleasing, welcoming, art filled etc place
And that goes for the furnishings as well as airport furnishings historically are dreadfully bad
I think they're they they just force people to be comfortable and all of those things
Finished materials, flooring, lighting, lighting can make a huge difference
All of those things I think you should incorporate and be planning to include in your capital planning or for this upgrade
Absolutely
We've been working really closely with our FBI partners to make sure that we have we have a strategic vision aesthetically throughout
Yeah, that's exactly what I was hoping to hear
And I want a second
Commissioner Steinberg on that
Commissioner Steinberg was off gill net fishing, so he didn't have the opportunity to see the world class gorgeous Alaska Airlines lounge and say, oh, you are gonna be blown away
And so we even impressed Governor Locke
And it's very hard to impress Governor
And so I would say I mean, that's me is the gold standard
And in fact, several people at that event said this is what the airport should look like
And I agree
And so when you have a chance committee, let's get him there as soon as party member
I'm sure somebody can
I haven't been in there either
I'm sure somebody can pick you, take you on a tour of it like that
But but from an architectural standpoint, it just it's all about the northwest
And that is what I think that would improve the customer's experience quite a bit
So we have really strong leadership from our FBI department
We've been working with Heather Kerch, who is all about the Northwest sense of place, and she's been a great partner to us
So we will continue to look at that as part of this
This really harks back to the branding topic as well, because this is how you to me, how you brand a place, an airport is through that kind of quality of design and character
Thank you, MR Feldman
Well, I mean, at this point, it's all up from here, right? I mean, the Gina Marie Hall does set the tone as best for that kind of open spaces suddenly that
But so you have a very good slate to start with
But, um, I just want to actually pay compliment to the to the new seating at Jean Marie Hall, those, you know, crazy Amy Boyle seats
I mean, those are quite nice
And they have the plugs in through, I think, very biologic about them
And so anyway, it's not like you're not doing nothing
Thank you
Keep up the good work
And I did really see that you had a chance to sit on that
Of course
All right
So we'll look forward to more detail on the projects
Absolutely
Thank you very much
So we're gonna we're coming up on 215 and we all have to get to eastern Washington and then have a meeting with WPA and then a retreat for the next two days
So I know we have several more days of port meetings
Right
Way to go
So with that, are there any other questions from commissioners or comments? I'll just say, I'm not sure
Prevent anybody from Kirkland still in the room
But thank you to everybody
Our staff in particular, the folks from Kirkland for making today possible
Mayor Sweet and city manager Curt Triplett just did a fantastic job with the tour
I think it was just really interesting and we're thrilled to be here
I'm looking forward to coming back to the east side
And now we're going to go to the other side of the state
So with that, we are adjourned at up to 13.

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