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The Seattle Convention Center’s mission for operations, guided by its Board of Directors, is to provide both direct and indirect economic benefits and jobs to Washington State, King County and the City of Seattle. While this is not a topic most Washington residents ponder, the Center believes it is important for others to understand how its operations provide economic benefits for everyone in the region.
When convention attendees come here, they spend money on travel, lodging, meals, retail, and extended tourist activities, paying sales and hotel taxes on these expenditures. National conventions now draw thousands of attendees to Seattle and, with the opening of the Summit building, will draw even more. Since opening in 1988, the Arch building has held over 11,500 events with a total attendance of more than 12,761,100 individuals (through 2021). Each person attending an SCC event directly contributes to the economy as they spend money in the community. To date, it is estimated out-of-state event attendees have spent over $7.1 billion. This spending keeps many of our businesses healthy and thousands of our citizens gainfully employed.
In addition to spurring a great amount of economic activity, most of this attendee spending is subject to retail sales tax. Generating money for the operation of state and local governments without imposing additional taxes on state residents is a goal shared by many. In a state such as Washington, heavily reliant on sales taxes, national conventions become the taxpayer’s best friend. These short-term visitors do not put their children in our schools or consume significant amounts of other governmental services. The sales taxes they pay become in effect net income for state and local governments. The impact of SCC on our governments’ budgets is clear — annual sales tax collections associated with a normal (pre- COVID) year of SCC operations are estimated to be in excess of $30.6 million (calculated on spending by out-of-state attendees only).
The shutdowns stemming from the COVID pandemic in 2020 had a devastating global impact across all industries. Locally, it also made crystal clear the economic loss experienced when our region lacks tourism and convention business spending to support hotels, small business, restaurants, and transportation, and the associated employment.
In the years immediately preceding the COVID pandemic, the Arch building hosted an average of 51 national/international events per year, with an estimated annual economic impact of more than $394.7 million. The direct employment in Washington State driven by this SCC event activity totaled more than 4,200 jobs. Starting in the early spring of 2020, however, the SCC facilities were closed to essentially all events for the better part of the year, as meeting planners canceled and/or rescheduled their activities. After reopening, event activity has gradually picked back up, and event attendance for national conventions is returning. Visit Seattle is the region’s travel and tourism marketing organization. Their sales team works in tandem with the SCC sales team, striving to rebuild the events industry to pre-pandemic levels of activity for SCC, with all the economic and tax benefits that flow from it.
More than a decade ago, civic leaders determined that the economic impact of SCC could be substantially increased by the addition of a second facility. The opportunity we were missing is highlighted by the fact that between 2012 and 2015, the Center turned away over 300 potential events due to the unavailability of space in the Arch building on the dates desired by meeting planners. Following an extended planning and design period, contractors broke ground in August of 2018 on the site of the SCC’s Summit building, with the first events in the additional facility scheduled for early 2023. It has been estimated that during the first year of steady-state operations (assumed to be 2026), Summit will host more than 200 events, with event attendance totaling more than 233,000. Spending by the out-of-state portion of this attendance total is estimated to be in excess of $211.6 million.
The post-pandemic meetings industry appears to be evolving, as online and hybrid events develop as viable options. The long-term outlook for conventions and other events at SCC remains solid, however, as in-person gatherings again become normal and as Seattle remains a highly desirable destination for both meeting planners and attendees.
In the years ahead, the combined operations of the Summit and Arch buildings will continue to serve as a powerful economic engine for everyone in our region. Working as a team with Visit Seattle and the hotel community, the Center will attract the most lucrative conventions and meetings, fitting the clients’ programs into the facility in the most effective and efficient way. Each of those events will bring economic activity, tax collections and employment opportunities to our community, as the Seattle Convention Center continues to fulfill its economic mission.
For more information visit SCC Financial Reports »
Most people are familiar with the Seattle Convention Center because it hosts a large variety of meetings, events, and conventions. That is the primary role it plays – the Center provides a venue in which people gather from around the region, the nation and the world to share ideas, celebrate and learn.
But its role goes well beyond that. SCC has a longstanding commitment to positively impact the lives of those in our region and beyond, advancing the common good. The legacy of our civic actions for the community holds as true today as it began in 1988. Expand the sections below to learn more.
The Center’s long history of environmentally sustainable practices dates back decades.
Sustainable Food & Beverages
When feasible, the SCC kitchen staff purchases locally sourced, in-season sustainable products. Buying local supports regional producers and cuts down on our carbon footprint as shipping distances are greatly reduced. In addition to many of our food products being grown or produced in Washington and/or the Pacific Northwest, over 98% of the wines we serve are from Washington’s acclaimed wineries. All the contents and packaging of our boxed lunches and all disposable food service items (cups, plates, cutlery and coffee stir sticks) are 100% compostable. Read more about SCC’s sustainable banquet services ».
Sustainable Facilities and Practices
From LEED Certification and waste minimization to adopting renewable resources, we’ve explored every opportunity to implement protocols that are kinder to the environment. Read more about SCC’s sustainable facility operations ».
SCC’s Board has long been committed to a policy of providing maximum practical opportunity for increased participation by minority- and women-owned businesses (MWBE) in its construction program and in the operation processes by which it procures goods and services. It sets measurable goals for MWBE business participation and equitable distribution of economic benefits.
1988 construction completion of the original Arch building, bridging the Freeway to First Hill, was the largest dollar amount ever spent in the Seattle Business Core by any developer which spent over $15.5 million utilizing minority and women contractors. As a result, the Center’s Board achieved construction participation rates of 16.5 percent minority-owned businesses, or a total of $12,864,595, and 3.6 percent women-owned businesses, or a total of $2,819,948.
With Summit’s construction period from 2018 to 2023, the Board again set goals to spark creative opportunities for small and diverse businesses coupled with initiatives to enable career development for skilled workers. Learn more about SCC’s ongoing efforts to support inclusion and equality.
SCC’s mission for operations, guided by its Board of Directors, is to provide both direct and indirect economic and civic benefits. This consists of creating jobs and business activity to boost the local, regional, and state economy, and to generate civic benefits for the people of the community where the center is located.
Purposefully, the Board sought to ensure the creation of Summit provided more for the community than a space to gather. As part of the land purchase and permitting agreement, the Center provided an investment package for the community totaling over $93 million. This investment package included funding for affordable housing, parks and open spaces, improvements to Pike and Pine Streets, bicycle infrastructure, a study of lidding the I-5, and other community projects.
Nearly $40 million of SCC’s community investments has been provided to address the affordable housing crisis. This includes $4.3 million toward affordable housing through the City’s Incentive Zoning program, $5 million to King County for affordable housing and $330,000 to Plymouth Housing Group for additional development rights. The remaining $30 million went to the Seattle Office of Housing’s pooled resources, which have funded nearly 3,000 affordable-housing units.
Seattle Parks and Recreation also benefited from the public benefits package. It received $10 million in funding for Jim Ellis Freeway Park improvements, including $750,000 for activation within the park and $9,250,000 dedicated to capital improvements which include actual construction, as well as design and project management, permitting, sales tax and contingencies.
A summary of SCC’s recent investment in the community is available here.
The Center’s culinary team carefully plans each event’s food and beverage menu to ensure the least possible waste. There are times, though, when surplus food is inevitable, and the SCC kitchen will share and donate to local food kitchens where possible including FareStart, a culinary job training and placement program for disadvantaged adults and youth. SCC’s donations help reduce food costs for others, allowing them to prepare and distribute quality food that would otherwise go to waste. Sharing with the community has been a tradition since opening doors in 1988.
Also, when possible, SCC makes donations of surplus equipment to charitable organizations combating homelessness and other issues, and when meeting planners leave behind convention items, our event managers and staff let them know that we will work to donate them to local organizations on their behalf.
Since 1988, the Center has sought out creative ways to equitably advance the common good. For example, the Center’s culinary team carefully plans each event’s food and beverage menu to ensure the least possible waste. There are times, though, when surplus food is inevitable, and the SCC kitchen will donate to local food kitchens, including FareStart, when possible. This Seattle mainstay organization offers a culinary job training and placement program for disadvantaged adults and youth, plus they prepare and deliver more than 5,000 hot meals every day to social service programs and schools.
In addition to food surpluses, clients occasionally leave behind surplus event items, such as tote bags, shirts, or water bottles. With the client’s approval, SCC will facilitate a donation to a local charitable organization combating homelessness, food insecurity and other issues.
Furthermore, when resources permit, the Center’s summer internship program aims to expose college students to every aspect of the convention center business while helping them to develop the essential technical and interpersonal skills for a career in the hospitality industry. The Center has also developed alliances with schools across the region to build awareness of potential career paths for students seeking career opportunities in hospitality.
We are also the proud sponsor of an educational scholarship that focuses on helping minority students studying in fields supporting the hospitality industry.
