[Seattle Go Center] Seattle Go Center Building Development Update -- FEB 2021

1:41 PM |

Dear Members:

We try to update the membership periodically on the site development project. This is not a COVID19 update. First, I'll provide an update for the last six months, and later are two sections that repeat through all updates on background and looking forward.

SIX MONTH UPDATE. The building development deal is progressing quite well, especially in the times of COVID and slowed down city processes for big construction projects, and we are starting to look for an architect firm to help us design the new premises in the new building. However, keep in mind construction wouldn't start before MAR 2022, so the timeline is still long.

We are working on articles of incorporation and bylaws for a new 501c4 non-profit corp, Iwamoto Go Outreach Foundation (IGO Foundation, IGOF) to manage the endowment the Nihon Ki-in gives us to promote Iwamoto Sensei's mission in North America and in particular in the Seattle area. While we will replace our rental income with an endowment, we need to continually raise funds each year as we do now.

We formed a new premises buildout design committee that is currently interviewing and choosing an architect firm. We will update the membership specifically on those design discussions to get feedback as part of the process of iterating to a final design over the next year or two.

Financially we are doing well with loans and donations for this project that we are taking to cover cash flow until the deal closes. However, due to the building project impacting income from our tenant, a large jump in property taxes, and still having operational costs for SGC even while we are closed for COVID19, finances are increasingly difficult for us in the short term.

SAME BACKGROUND. We've discussed previously that the Board of the Seattle Go Center has been considering options for maintaining a thriving Seattle Go Center. Due to new high-density zoning, increased property values, higher property taxes and other costs, our board started researching scenarios and looking for an opportunity to develop the Go Center property in 2017. Our property is owned by the Nihon Ki-in in Japan, who give us free rent. The ideal outcome would be to sell the property to a developer who would give us a "free" lease for 99 years and invest the sale proceeds as an endowment to operate the Seattle Go Center.

We found and presented such a deal to the Nihon Ki-in in Tokyo in DEC 2019, and they signed a Purchase and Sales Agreement (PSA). It is much better than obtained by other go centers that Iwamoto Sensei created in his mission to spread peace and cultural awareness through Go. The Nihon Ki-in is very happy with our efforts and they agreed to all our requests on how to handle the sale and proceeds.

SAME FUTURE STATEMENT. Given construction permitting processes in Seattle at this time, construction likely would not start until early 2022. At that time, we would use sale proceeds to rent a space for a couple of years during construction, and then we would move back to the current location on the second floor in a new space we design.

Our buyer is very professional and pleasant to work with, and they have been very reasonable in dealing with us.

If you have any questions, feel free to send them to billchiles-gocenter@hotmail.com .

Cheers,

Bill Chiles