Those of us who frequently ride our bicycles along the east side of the Lake Washington bike route have been watching the construction at the Seattle Seahawks training facility on a lakefront tract in Renton.
Here you can see a bicyclist pedaling past the indoor practice facility on Friday. The building under construction is as big as a football field and tall enough to contain the highest of punts.
This little-used stretch of road will certainly get more traffic when the facility opens in the summer of 2008. A couple of waterfront industries made their homes here, but traffic was minimal. Cyclists are going to have to pay greater heed when they enter the road from a nearby bike path, especially as there will be accommodations for some 3,000 fans during training camps.
2nd largest
When complete, this will be the second largest training facility in the NFL. Officially dubbed the Virginia Mason Athletic Center, the 200,000 square foot facility is going to cost about $60 million when complete.
In addition to housing all the Seahawks operations under one roof, the 19-acre complex also will have three outdoor practice fields.
Previously, the Seahawks held training camps in Kirkland or at Eastern Washington University in Cheney. Offices were houses at Qwest Field or rented space around the city.
Road upgrade
Seahawks owner Paul Allen (co-founder of Microsoft with Bill Gates) happened to own this former industrial tract at the north edge of Renton and got approvals to turn it into a training facility.
The Seattle Times says the city of Renton has agreed to pay the cost of upgrading the roads to the site. Let's home they include a bike lane.
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