On March 14, Immunex Corp. announced it was scaling back its $750 million Helix project by more than a third.
The overpass, at the eastern foot of the Magnolia Bridge, was built at the expense of the city of Seattle, King County and Port of Seattle as a condition of the 1998 Immunex purchase of 29 acres of Terminal 88 property from the Port.
Immunex's corporate, research development departments - currently spread out in the Seattle area - were to be consolidated on the Terminal 88 property. The flyover was intended to help carry traffic from Elliott Avenue to Immunex and Terminals 90 and 91.
According to Immunex figures, the city spent $6.1 million on the overpass, the Port kicked in $1.6 million and King County shelled out $3.2 million. Another $8 million was provided by the Economic Development Administration and federal transportation funding.
At the time the deal was heralded as a boon to the area, and city officials boasted that property tax generated by the Immunex campus would more than pay back the cost of the overpass in 20 years. That attitude persisted even when overpass costs shot up from the original $12.5 million price tag.
"Some city officials jumped in with both feet," remembered King County Council member Larry Phillips.
Others were more cautious.
"Not everybody was wildly enthusiastic about this approach," he said.
Phillips added that he wanted to know Immunex was making a commitment to build its project, but he said he was "chastised" for his attitude.
Seattle City Council President Peter Steinbrueck was also concerned about the deal with Immunex.
"I raised all sorts of red flags about it," he said. "They couldn't demonstrate full payback."
Steinbrueck said last week that the council was quite concerned because the city had invested so much money in the overpass to keep Immunex in Seattle with the expectation that the biotech company would complete its project.
Work on three of eight buildings under construction at the site has been halted, said Immunex spokeswoman Robin Shapiro. One building being mothballed is a warehouse, while the other two were going to be used as administration offices, she said.
The decision to downsize the project was prompted by a proposed $16 billion bid for Immunex from California-based Amgen. If that acquisition goes through - and Shapiro thinks there is a good chance it will - administrative functions would likely be consolidated in California, she said.
"If the acquisition doesn't go through, we want to make sure we can start work (on the mothballed buildings) right away," Shapiro said, adding that Immunex has no plans at the moment to tear down the partially completed buildings.
Work on three laboratory buildings, a lab-support building and a mechanical building is continuing.
"We've been busting out at the seams," Shapiro said.
Ben Wolters, acting director of city's Office of Economic Development, said sales tax on construction materials for the Helix project will provide the city and county with a "big bump on the return."
He also said property taxes are higher for laboratories than for administration buildings.
"With that in mind, I think we are still going to come out quite a bit ahead," Wolters said of recovering the costs of the overpass.
Immunex has already paid around $1 million in property tax since the Helix project began around three years ago, according to Shapiro, who estimated the property tax on the trimmed-down project will bring in an additional $1 million a year.
As part of the Galer flyover deal, Immunex had committed to spending $9.4 million to construct a pedestrian overpass that would cross the railroad tracks at West Prospect Street.
Shapiro said she thinks Amgen will be obligated to build the pedestrian overpass if the acquisition goes through. Another Immunex employee, Cathy Keck Anderson, told the News in the past that the company considers the pedestrian overpass to be part of its payment for the Galer Street overpass.
The original idea was to locate all of the approximately 1,100 Immunex employees at the Helix site. Shapiro described as inaccurate accounts in the daily press that only 400 people will now be working at the smaller project.
Exactly how many workers will be located at the Interbay site has not been determined yet, Shapiro said.
"I think it's just too early to speculate."
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