SEATTLE – The Museum of History and Industry is in a cash clash with the City of Seattle after the museum managed to negotiate a better deal with the state over the right to build the new SR 520 floating bridge on museum property.
Mayor Mike McGinn says he's happy MOHAI got a better deal, but now says the museum needs to share some of its good fortune. Museum leaders say they need every penny they can get after the new bridge forces them to move to a new location.
Here's how it went down. MOHAI operates the building, but the city owns the MOHAI property. When the state made an initial offer of $15 million to buy the museum building, the city made an offer to MOHAI.
"We agreed they would get all the proceeds for the sale of the building," said McGinn. "There's also the land the building sits upon which is city owned and we had worked out a deal to split the proceeds of the land."
But, after negotiating directly with MOHAI, the state sweetened the deal and offered another $25 million for the building.
"But, since they got $40 million when we anticipated they'd only get 15, we have probably other higher priorities within the city budget now," said McGinn.
McGinn told the museum it could keep the $40 million for the building but the city should now get all the proceeds from the sale of the land.
"That's not a possibility," said MOHAI's Executive Director, Leonard Garfield. "It's my understanding the city has been working with us to fairly split the value of the land."
Garfield explains the museum needs every penny it can get to stay in business and to move its decades-old exhibit to a new facility at South Lake Union.
"The museum will be completely demolished. All our functions will cease and we need to rebuild to continue to serve the community," said Garfield.
McGinn countered.
"Now is not the time for one non-profit institution to be trying to get all it can get from the city," he said.
Neither side is budging, but both sides said they want to work out a deal.
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