Downtown Seattle bus station being sold for convention space

SEATTLE -- The Metropolitan King County Council has voted to sell a 4-acre bus station in downtown Seattle to make way for the Washington State Convention Center.

The Seattle Times reports the council voted Monday to sell the station for $162 million. The Convention Place Station's 570 busses will be evicted throughout the next two years, which would have partially needed to happen anyway to make room for the rail-extension project set to open in 2021.

A temporary bus ramp will let buses continue to use the downtown transit tunnel for the next year or so.

The move makes room for a 250,000-square-foot (23,226-square-meter) convention hall planned to be erected in 2020. Sponsors estimate the project will provide 6,000 construction jobs and 2,300 long-term hospitality jobs. The project's expansion budget is $1.6 billion.