KIRKLAND, Wash. (May 8, 2006) -- The Seahawks are moving their headquarters from the cramped location in this suburb east of the city to Renton south of Seattle --- the same suburb where the SuperSonics are considering building a new arena.
Alex Pietch, director of Renton's economic development department, confirmed that the Seahawks plan to move onto a 20-acre, waterfront site on the southeastern shore of Lake Washington.
"We have been in talks with the Seahawks for some months in advance of this," Pietch said.
Tod Leiweke, the Seahawks' chief executive, deferred questions on the move to a May 9 press conference at the team's current headquarters next to Northwest University in Kirkland. In a news release May 8, the team said it would be announcing a "new facility upgrade" on May 9.
The team's 20-year lease with Northwest University for the land that holds the current, 44,000 square-foot headquarters -- remodeled in 1999 -- ends this year. The Seahawks plan to break ground on their 120,000 square-foot Renton site this fall and move in time to have their 2008 training camp there.
The site is owned by Seahawks' owner Paul Allen's Vulcan Inc., a management company that invests in science, the arts and movie production, among other ventures.
The Seahawks approached Renton about six months ago with the idea of using the Vulcan land for a new, far larger and more modern team facility and training camp headquarters. The Seahawks' current training camp is at Eastern Washington University in Cheney each summer.
