After 40 years at Seattle Center, Crosscut will move across town
The leadership behind the public-media superstation responsible for KCTS9 PBS and Crosscut has spent more than eight years searching for a new place to call home.
CPM closed on its new building, which formerly housed another significant Seattle nonprofit, Childhaven, on June 30. Company leadership say it will create new and even more accessible opportunities for news production, public engagement and community events when staff move in by the end of 2023
The offices will still be close to downtown, but also to the Central District, Capitol Hill, the International District and even KCTS’s transmission tower at 18th Avenue and East Madison Street.
“We find ourselves in a place that I think is a lot more oriented around the kinds of communities we want to be better connected to,” to increase engagement around topics shaping the region, said CPM CEO & President Rob Dunlop.
CPM purchased the 77,412-square-foot building at 316 Broadway Ave. for $23 million from original owner Childhaven, a nonprofit assisting area families healing from trauma. Designing a new office here, Dunlop says, is an opportunity to markedly update CPM technology from the ’80s-era, broadcast-focused studio spaces at the current office while taking advantage of the new building’s outdoor spaces for both events and production.
According to the Puget Sound Business Journal, Childhaven had been looking to lease the building amid increasing operating costs. Noting that many families it serves have been forced to move out of King County, the nonprofit ultimately merged with two other nonprofits, Renton Area Youth Services and Art with Heart, and is using proceeds from the building sale to fund programming that helps families priced out of the Seattle area.
CPM just launched the public phase of a $40 million capital campaign to help convert the building from one filled with children’s playsets and miniature bathrooms to news production and event spaces. The organization has raised $3.7 million so far, with “a lot of large requests that are pending with foundations or major donors,” Dunlop said. CPM is seeking $12.5 million in this fundraising stage, and donations made between Sept. 19 and Oct. 6 will be matched up to $150,000.