Last April, the Seattle Office of Economic Development launched the M5 Creative space at the former Cascade Public Media building on the Seattle Center campus, as one-year initiative offering affordable space for creative uses. Businesses in the creative economy were offered highly discounted leases on office and production spaces.
Since opening the doors of the M5 Creative building, 16 creative economy and three film productions have leased office space. Fourteen film productions have filmed in the building, and over 40 industry and community workshops and activations were hosted.
As planned, tenants will wind down their lease with OED at the end of March 2025. OED is working in partnership with Seattle Center to continue occupancy through the end of the year for creative businesses and activity that have a focus on film. In line with this focus beginning April 2025, OED has agreed on a one-time lease extension through December 2025 to use this space solely for film production.
Chris Swenson, film program manager for OED has worked on this project from inception and noticed more than economic impacts, but real connection and collaboration between tenants with different creative industry focuses. “The tenants that participated in this program brought energy, enthusiasm, creativity, and formed a community network of support for each other,” said Swenson. “Together, they’ve proved the case for creating a creative economy business and community ecosystem, and also contributed to invigorating the Seattle Center campus with energy, commerce, and vibrancy.”
Tenants recognized the value of investing in the creative economy in meaningful ways like the M5 Creative project, and the impact it had on their bottom line. “M5 Creative is one of the most impactful projects the City has ever launched to support the creative economy,” said Amy Lillard, executive director of Washington Filmworks and Wheelhouse. “M5 Creative is key to securing film production work as it’s a low cost, turnkey resource where the production can support upwards of 100 cast and crew coming to the space at various times during the production. Recently we secured a ‘road movie’ feature film from a studio who decided to make Seattle their home base because of M5 Creative.”
OED is prioritizing how we can make an impact at the sector level in growing and retaining jobs in career pathways that pay higher than average wages, and supporting system-level work to better prepare workers for those opportunities. In 2025, OED is taking a more focused approach to our creative economy work that is consistent with our overall approach to key industries. This will bring new capital into the economy, and add variety to our economic base.