Operation Nightwatch funds to be dropped from next Convention Center public benefits package

Funding to purchase a new homeless shelter for Operation Nightwatch likely won’t make it into the next public benefits proposal for the Washington State Convention Center addition, the developer said.

As reported in the Madison Park Times in June, addition developer Matt Griffin presented a proposal for a $30 million public benefits package intended to offset the project’s privatization of three alleyways and two streets. The proposal included a $2 million earmark to purchase a South Horton Street property for homeless shelter use.

The Seattle Design Commission kicked the proposal back to the developing Pine Street Group for revisions. The next version of the package likely will not include the purchase of 150 S. Horton St.

“The city wanted more focus on on-site components of the project, so that’s what we’re going to focus on,” Griffin, the managing partner of the Pine Street Group, said.

Additionally, when developers and city of Seattle officials visited the proposed shelter site, city officials believed the Sodo-based site would be too noisy for shelter use, Griffin said.

“We all agree we have a crisis of homelessness in this city … and we hate to see an asset go unused,” he said. “But it looks like it won’t happen.”

The developer’s proposal to purchase a shelter site came as a surprise to Operation Nightwatch.

Nightwatch board member Tara Hoyt contacted the Madison Park Times after the June article was published, writing that no one at the organization had been notified the $2 million purchase was under consideration.

Hoyt said she was concerned discussion of such large sums of money in public meetings and the press, without Operation Nightwatch’s involvement, could create a false sense that they’re flush with cash.

“People will be less likely to give us money because it looks like we are already well taken care of financially,” Hoyt said. “For a small organization like us this can be devastating.”

Operation Nightwatch’s director, the Rev. Rick Reynolds, said the proposal was baffling more than anything else.

“I wouldn’t be averse to taking that money,” Reynolds said. “But it’s confusing to read about it in the paper and not know anything about it.”

Reynolds and other leaders from the faith-based shelter have searched for a new shelter site since spring, when the city moved them from the Pearl S. Warren building to make way for its homeless navigation center.

The city has been helpful in assisting Operation Nightwatch with the search for a new site that will accommodate 75 beds.