EVERETT — Snohomish County and the Boeing Co. on Wednesday finalized a 25-year lease agreement to move the airplane maker’s popular tour center into a new flight museum to be built at Paine Field.
The $21.7 million National Flight Interpretative Center is scheduled to open in June 2005.
Getting the tour center and its steady stream of visitors was crucial to the new museum. County officials expect the flight center to attract 230,000 visitors a year and increase tourism spending in the county by $3.5 million annually in restaurants, hotels and other businesses.
"It is the single critical element to having the project," said Bill Lewallen, deputy director of Snohomish County Airport-Paine Field. "Without the Boeing Tour Center … there’s no way to make it pencil."
Also in the works is a Hilton Garden Inn next to the museum, which would help the county capture even more tourism dollars.
The County Council unanimously approved the museum contract Wednesday.
"It means a lot to the county to have this kind of a facility in place. It will mean a good deal of tourism," said Councilman Gary Nelson, chairman of the council’s Public Works Committee, which oversees airport operations.
"And I think we’ve covered all the bases that are necessary to assure the public that this will be a self-supporting, free-enterprise type of venture," Nelson said
Councilman Kirke Sievers agreed.
"I think it’s a win-win for my district," said Sievers, whose council district includes Paine Field. "This will be a significant factor in our economic outlook for years to come."
Financing for the project already is in place.
The county collected almost $22 million in bond revenues to pay for the museum in April 2003, and the Snohomish County Public Facilities District — which also helped finance the Everett Events Center — has agreed to kick in $5.5 million for the museum, roughly 16 percent of the cost.
The contract with Boeing means the company will fund the addition of the tour center. The center, which includes a 200-seat theater and a Boeing gift shop, will take up roughly 11,400 square feet in the museum.
The National Flight Interpretive Center will include a cafe, exhibits, meeting rooms and a gift shop. The building has roughly 68,000 square feet of space.
Boeing’s tour center will cost about $6 million, and the company will make annual lease payments of about $496,600. The company also will pay $5,400 a month to lease the land for the tour center.
Planning for exhibits at the museum has already begun. The museum has a Boeing 727 that will be displayed at the entrance, as well as a B-52 bomber.
Other pieces of the project are expected to fall into place shortly.
Lewallen said Beechwood Development of DeForest, Wis., is expected to finalize plans to build a 100-room Hilton Garden Inn next to the museum.
"They are in the process of putting funding together and expect within the next three weeks to have a final decision," Lewallen said.
The full-service hotel would open three weeks before the museum. The plan for the hotel includes a restaurant, lounge, indoor pool and high-speed Internet access.
The hotel would include eight executive suites.
"Our purpose in requesting that was to attempt to capture the international aerospace clients of Boeing who come to accept delivery of new jets," Lewallen said. "Market studies have shown that most of the lodging nights for those visitors occur in downtown Seattle, even though they do business during the day in Everett."
The hotel also would be used for tourists and business clients.
The Museum of Flight in Seattle would run the National Flight Interpretive Center.
An operations agreement is just weeks away from completion, said Barry Smith, the Museum of Flight’s executive director at Paine Field.
The Museum of Flight, which already operates a popular facility in Seattle, has been looking to expand in Snohomish County for at least a decade. It’s had a restoration facility at Paine Field since 1992, which is also used to do maintenance on the museum’s flying fleet, such as the Boeing-built 247, a precursor to the DC-3 that was built in 1929.
The museum’s educational program at its facility on East Marginal Way in Seattle is close to capacity and serves 80,000 schoolchildren a year. Expanding northward will give students in Snohomish, Skagit and Whatcom counties easier access to the museum’s educational program, he said. Partnering with Boeing will mean an automatic customer base of 120,000 visitors a year.
"We’re thrilled and could not be more excited," Smith said.
Reporter Brian Kelly: 425-339-3422 or kelly@heraldnet.com.
MICHAEL O’LEARY / The Herald
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
