By Jim Haley
Herald Writer
PAINE FIELD — A dream place for aerospace buffs is much closer to reality now that many of the pieces of a complicated puzzle have fallen into place for a major tourist center here.
The Seattle-based Museum of Flight Foundation is near a goal of building a world-class National Flight Interpretive Center in south Everett, but a few more puzzle pieces must still be fit into the frame.
Among the first hurdles is persuading the Snohomish County Council to allow parts of its government to accept tax dollars set aside for special centers that could lure tourists.
The museum is making a strong drive to become eligible to receive about $7.5 million by diverting money from state sales taxes under the same state law that allowed use of tax dollars to construct Safeco Field and the new Seahawks football stadium.
The facility’s total cost is estimated at $27.5 million, and the rest will be raised through a variety of private sources by the museum foundation.
The current proposal is a three-way partnership involving the museum, the Boeing Co. and the Snohomish County Airport, which is the applicant for the public funds through an entity created this year called the Snohomish County Public Facilities District.
"We think it has tremendous potential for Snohomish County," airport director Dave Waggoner said. "I think it’s a do-able project."
It’s the same mechanism that is being used by Everett to use tax money for part of the construction of a hockey arena and garage, and Lynnwood to build a special events center.
The flight center at Paine Field would consist of a 64,500-square-foot building with:
Long-range plans call for construction of a large-format theater, additional exhibit space and a 110-room hotel.
The museum projects that an expanded tour center would double the number of people visiting Boeing — about 250,000 a year. If the large-format theater is built later, the number would double again, museum consultants estimate.
Under the state law passed to start construction of the Seattle stadiums, a door was left ajar for local jurisdictions to use the same funding source as part of the construction of regional facilities.
"The legislation was a bone thrown to the counties, other than King County where the stadiums were constructed," said Dan Clements, Snohomish County finance director.
Everett, Lynnwood and Edmonds all formed public facility districts to possibly take advantage of the money. The county followed suit, but the legislation called for funneling money only into city projects.
The law must be changed to allow the airport to become a recipient, and the county facilities district soon needs some indication the county council will do that.
But county Councilman Gary Nelson, who stands to be next year’s chairman with an incoming Republican majority, said he doesn’t know if he can be convinced to allow the airport to use the tax money.
"I think school’s still out on that," Nelson said.
For one thing, Nelson wonders if the airport should be used for economic development.
Another problem for Nelson is that Edmonds has formed a facilities district and is examining the possibility of building a regional center there. Nelson lives in Edmonds.
Edmonds officials would like to get some tax money through the county’s district as well as its own, but most likely will miss a Dec. 1 deadline to prove it has a worthwhile project. Nelson is concerned that Edmonds’ deadline extension request was denied.
The museum first proposed the new Paine Field center, but Waggoner and the airport recently joined the effort. An official application has Waggoner’s name on it.
"I wear a bunch of hats," Waggoner said. "One is a kind of county economic development guy. I saw this as a way of providing better services and greatly increasing tourism."
The museum made great progress recently when it jumped out of competition with Lynnwood and agreed to take whatever tax proceeds were left after those allotted for Lynnwood ($8.1 million) and Everett ($8.6 million).
Although Clements estimates the total amount raised under the tax will be $20 million over 25 years, that may be too conservative, said Barry Smith of Everett, the managing director for the proposed flight center.
"We’re third to the party," Smith said. "We’ll take third place and take what’s left, and we’ll take the risk" that there will be more revenue than Clements says.
"To me it will be a destination, and that’s something to come to Snohomish County for," Smith said. "And it will be something to remember about Snohomish County."
Travis Snyder, chairman of the county facilities board, said the Museum of Flight project will have to meet the same deadlines and requirements as Edmonds. If it does, it stands to get some money.
"I think our board, if you ask them individually, all of them would support the project," Snyder said.
You can call Herald Writer Jim Haley at 425-339-3447
or send e-mail to haley@heraldnet.com.
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