Amazon pledges $5M to help support ongoing construction of Seattle's new Waterfront Park

Friends of Waterfront Seattle announced Thursday a major philanthropic gift of $5 million from Amazon. The funds will support the ongoing construction of Seattle's new 20-acre Waterfront Park, set to be complete in 2024. 

Amazon has already provided $7 million toward construction of the park through its participation in the downtown Waterfront LID, established as part of the overall funding plan for the new park.  

“We are enormously grateful to Amazon for stepping up to help create an extraordinary new gathering place that will be a tribute to the people, landscapes, traditions, and spirit of innovation that define our city,” said Friends of Waterfront Seattle Executive Director Thatcher Bailey in the news release. 

The new waterfront will provide 20 acres of improved parks and public spaces along Seattle’s central waterfront to downtown.  Elements of the park include a new promenade from Pioneer Square to the Seattle Aquarium, two rebuilt piers, a new connection between the waterfront and Pike Place Market and improvements to streets and sidewalks in the area.

“Waterfront Park will transform Seattle,” said Amazon Senior Vice President and General Counsel David Zapolsky in the release. “It is a bold, once-in-a-lifetime investment in our natural environment and in our cultural and civic lives. Amazon is proud to support this project and the future it represents for the city.”

The construction strikes a hopeful note as the city is looking to bring back tourists to the downtown core and waterfront following the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Seattle waterfront, namely in the area of Pier 58, has been undergoing renovations since last year. A project to remove the damaged pier was expedited after a portion of the pier collapsed into Elliot Bay in September of 2020.

Initiated by Mayor Jenny Durkan in 2019, Mayor-elect Bruce Harrell shares the same enthusiasm in the revamp.

"This vision for a renewed waterfront unites everyone in our community around the common purpose of bettering our City, Harrell said in the release. "As Mayor, I am eager to help complete Waterfront Park and to be there to witness firsthand the connections it helps drive and revitalize between our community, the Salish Sea, and one another.”

In addition to raising $110M by 2024 to fund park construction, Friends of Waterfront Seattle will provide funding and manage the programming and operations of the new Waterfront Park through a management partnership with the city and other community partners.