Welcome to SWIFT Center
The SWIFT Center (Sedro-Woolley Innovation for Tomorrow) is located on the former Northern State Hospital campus. The hospital, built in 1912, was a self-sustained community with its own farm, creamery, shop, powerhouse and more—a modern marvel with more than 400 employees. The campus is an Olmsted design, famed landscape architects who also designed Central Park in New York City.
The Port of Skagit continues to work with partners, including the City of Sedro-Woolley, Skagit County and others, to revitalize the campus. The community vision is to redevelop this property into a destination mixed use campus accommodating education, research and development, manufacturing, hospitality and commercial venues, all within the historic character and great public spaces of the Center.
Today, a SWIFT Center Business Advisory Council is advising the Port on how to best meet the vision for the campus redevelopment. This group will help identify and evaluate different business opportunities to ensure the SWIFT Center’s full potential is realized.
By focusing on the redevelopment of the campus into a center for innovation and technology, it will achieve the Port of Skagit’s mission of “Good Jobs for Our Community” by bringing additional family-wage professional jobs to Skagit County.
After taking ownership of the SWIFT Center property in July 2018, the Port of Skagit worked with stakeholders to further develop and implement our plans for restoring public access in designated areas of the campus.
The Port opened designated outdoor areas of the campus in the fall of 2019 for public access. Public access is limited to dawn to dusk hours in specific outdoors areas only. Please refer to the SWIFT Center Visitor’s Guide for more details.
Photography Requests
Given current conditions and out of consideration of the work and needs of our tenants, the Port is not able to fulfill requests for public access inside buildings at this time.
- Encourage private sector to create and sustain jobs
- Continue and promote public recreation use of SWIFT Center
- Protect environmentally sensitive areas, in particular Hansen Creek
- Acknowledge and protect historic significance of SWIFT Center
- Acknowledge and respect Upper Skagit Indian Tribal Nation’s interests
SWIFT Center Menu
SWIFT Center Admin Offices
Quick Facts & Information
- Port of Skagit took ownership of the SWIFT Center from the State of Washington in July 2018.
- The Port and partners are leading efforts to revitalize the campus to focus on economic development in eastern Skagit County.
- Public access was restored in the fall of 2019 to designated outdoors areas of the campus.
- The Northern State Hospital first opened in 1912 and closed in the 1970’s.
- In the 1950’s more than 2,500 people lived on the campus, including patients, medical staff and facility workers.
- Clean-up efforts are underway to address legacy environmental concerns that stem from the hospital operations.
SWIFT Center Overview Map
SWIFT Center Menu
SWIFT Center Admin Offices