Excerpts from the Puget Sound Business Journal:
Seattle waterfront leaders expressed delight and surprise Tuesday that the Seattle City Council has thwarted plans to build a basketball arena next door to the Port of Seattle’s busiest cargo terminal.
“People are happy, everyone’s in a pretty good mood today,” said John Persak, vice president of the 800-member International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 19, in Seattle.
“Our biggest concern was that it would have impacted reliability of cargo in and out of Terminal 46, that we would have lost those customers and that opportunity,” Persak said. “Right now that terminal is carrying the lion’s share of the container work.”
Persak added that ILWU workers very much want an NBA franchise in the Seattle area, they just want it anywhere but the working waterfront.
“We’ve always maintained Key Arena is something we can support,” he said. “It’s good union jobs to build it in that location.”