Loss of the Dinner Train could impact our Pavilion Event Center

Renton has a lot riding on our dinner train.  We could lose a lot of downtown economic activity if  BNSF and WSDOT force Eric Temple and his Spirit of Washington dinner train out of town.

The Railroad and the Agency have been working on a frustrating deal in which Washington State DOT will pay BNSF about 30 Million dollars instead of rebuilding the railroad’s connection over I-405 in Bellevue during their upcoming widening project.  While the money works well for the Railroad and DOT, this deal breaks the Eastside Railroad line and takes away most of the track for Mr. Temple’s dinner train.  (It also takes away redundant rail access to the Boeing plant.)

Two years ago, Mr. Temple offered to put $200,000 of his own money into finishing our vacant Pavilion building downtown, to lease it from the city and manage it as a community event center. He proposed catering these Pavilion events with the same modern commercial kitchen he built for catering the dinner train, in the train depot he leases and beautifully maintains downtown. Council chose this offer over an alternative plan, which was to bring in salvaged carrousel horses and create a permanent museum in the pavilion building. The carrousel museum plan would require a long term city subsidy as well as $250,000 in public start up costs. Mr. Temple’s Spirit of Washington Event Center has been extremely successful, hosting nearly 200 events per year and giving Renton over one hundred thousand dollars in extra revenue each year.

As the crowds and trees both grew at the adjacent outdoor Cinema at the Piazza, and the noise from Pavilion events and movies co-mingled, Mr. Temple offered to pay for hosting the Outdoor Cinema a few blocks up the street at a more spacious, grassy, and child-friendly Liberty Park location. Council took him up on the offer, and Mr. Temple became a major contributor to activating three regions of our downtown; the train depot with his dinner train, the Pavilion with his many events, and Liberty Park with his sponsored movies.

Council has been trying to save the dinner train by challenging the closure of the eastside rail line. And we have been working to assure that in any case Mr. Temple will still have his train depot to cater his Event Center.