In 1994, Jeff Bezos rented a garage in Bellevue (Amazon) as the office of Amazon (Amazon). Since then, the company has grown rapidly and is headquartered in downtown Seattle. Amazon’s commercial expansion has reshaped downtown Seattle, and now the technology giant is returning to its birthplace, announcing that it will move all operations to Bellevue by 2023.
What layout does Amazon have in Bellevue?
In April 2017, Amazon announced that it had leased its first downtown office building in Bellevue, 425 Center. So far, Amazon has hired thousands of employees locally, but the scale will continue to expand. The company has promised to increase its employees to 25,000 by 2025.
As of 2020, Amazon Bellevue office distribution diagram
1, 425 Center
25 Center was built by Seattle well-known developer Schnitzer West. It is a 16-story building with an office area of 354,000 square feet and can accommodate about 2,000 people. In 2018, as Expedia moved its headquarters to downtown Seattle, Amazon seized the expansion opportunity in Bellevue and rented the entire Expedia headquarters building. The lease begins in 2020 and the lease term is 16 years.
Built in 2008, the 20-story building covers an area of 440,000 square feet, with a half-acre outdoor plaza and eight levels of underground parking. The building is just steps away from the 425 Center.
3, Binary Towers
In 2019, Amazon continued to expand and rented Binary Towers in the city center. These are two adjacent office buildings, 15 stories tall, with a total area of approximately 715,000 square feet. The building is currently under construction, and Amazon employees are expected to move in this year.
4, Summit III
In 2020, Amazon rented Summit III, which is located opposite the former Expedia headquarters building. It is only a 5-minute walk from Bellevue's transportation hub. The light rail will be opened in 2023, and employee commuting will become very convenient. . The Summit III building is 17 stories tall and has approximately 370,000 square feet of space. With this lease, Amazon has more than 1 million square feet of office space in Bellevue..
6, Bellevue 600
This is the office building and parking lot that Amazon acquired for US$195 million in 2019, and plans to convert it into a brand new office building. The project is divided into two phases. The first phase is a 43-story office building. After completion, it will become the tallest building in Bellevue and is expected to be completed in 2024. The second phase will build a 31-story office building on the site of the parking lot and is expected to be completed in 2025.
In addition to Bellevue 600, Amazon also signed two adjacent office buildings, 555 Tower and West Main, with a total area of approximately 2 million square feet during the same period.
6, The Artise
Entering 2021, Amazon’s expansion is still strong. Even though already owns nearly 5 million square feet of office buildings in the East End, it announced the lease of The Artise, a 25-story office building also developed by Schnitzer West. The building is under construction and will be operational in the fourth quarter of 2023, with approximately 600,000 square feet of office space.
Bellevue Real Estate Trends
With the strong entry of technology giants, Bellevue's real estate market has also grown by leaps and bounds, rising 26% year-on-year, and the median sales price reached $1,515,000.Moreover, the house stays on the market for only about days, making it very popular.
The local market has a competition score of 93, and Redfin considers Bellevue to be one of the most competitive markets in the country. Typical homes require an average markup of more than 9%, and popular properties require markups of more than 18%, and often The transaction is completed within 3 days, which shows its popularity.
Broderick predicts that Amazon alone will rent 20% to 30% of the offices in downtown Bellevue. As similar large-scale technology companies continue to expand and more jobs are created, a large number of elite talents will follow. Both the housing buying and selling market and the leasing market will benefit from this trend.
