EVERETT — First, the bad news.
An open-air shopping mall and residential development planned for the city’s riverfront will, at the soonest, open in May 2012 — more than a year behind schedule.
“The good news is the developer still has the financing to move ahead,” Everett Mayor Ray Stephanson told community leaders at his annual state of the city address Tuesday morning.
The message to the Greater Everett Chamber of Commerce was the first public acknowledgement that San Diego developer OliverMcMillan would postpone building on the riverfront property.
While much of his speech at the Everett Golf and Country Club focused on the sobering economic climate, Stephanson also offered hope of economic growth and recovery.
The U.S. Navy, Everett Community College and Providence Regional Medical Center Everett — three major employers resistant to the economic downturn — are all pursuing major expansions.
Those projects include a new 500-bed, dormitory-style building and a training facility at Naval Station Everett; a planned 12-story medical tower at Providence’s Colby Campus; and doubling of Everett Community College’s campus in the coming decade.
Construction is under way on significant mid-sized buildings expected to draw hundreds of additional residents to downtown Everett. Two regional air carriers say they are interested in offering regular commercial passenger flights from Paine Field, something the city is itching for.
“We’re going to get out of this and we’re going to be stronger for it,” Stephanson said. “I’m absolutely convinced of that.”
For Stephanson, who is seeking re-election in November, this year is shaping up to be his most challenging since taking office in late 2003.
While the city in December passed a balanced $505.7 million budget with no layoffs or service cuts, if sales taxes and other revenue sources significantly dip this year, the city could be forced to take additional cost-cutting measures.
The city already has done much to control spending, including renegotiating new medical plans with city employee unions.
That effort, while still offering generous benefits for city employees, has helped reduce health-care costs during the past three years, reversing a trend that existed before he took office, he said.
Last year, Stephanson also put the brakes on a proposed 5-mile streetcar line connecting downtown and the waterfront that was projected to cost more than $150 million.
This week, Stephanson’s top advisor asked the City Council to step away from a plan to annex neighborhoods east of Silver Lake. The push came after it was determined that absorbing the area could lead to substantial budget deficits. The council on Wednesday voted unanimously to cancel its plan to proceed with a possible annexation.
With regard to the city’s largest employer, the Boeing Co., “clearly we have challenges ahead of us,” Stephanson said.
Boeing announced last week that it would cut 4,500 positions in the Puget Sound area by the end of April in order to stay competitive during tough economic times.
Stephanson said the city should heed the advice of Scott Carson, president of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, to push for unemployment and workers’ compensation insurance reform in order to stay globally competitive.
Snohomish county’s unemployment rate rose to 6.3 percent in November, the most recent month available, from 6.1 percent in October. That’s close to the state’s unadjusted unemployment rate of 6.4 percent, according to the state.
On the topic of a University of Washington branch campus, Stephanson backed away from his previous advocacy of Everett Station as the best site for a campus.
At his state of the city speech in 2008, Everett Area Chamber of Commerce employees passed out purple and gold pompoms and water bottles with stickers saying “Bring UW North to Everett!!” — a play on Marysville boosters who coined the slogan “Real Huskies Go North (of Everett).”
Now, Stephanson said Snohomish County leaders should put aside the infighting and simply seek a bill authorizing the establishment of a state-run university in Snohomish County.
“If we continue down that path of arguing about site, there are a couple of other communities — one Bellevue, and another in Kitsap County — that are going to leap over us. And if they do, I think this initiative will die for the next decade.”
David Chircop: 425-339-3429 or dchircop@heraldnet.com.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
