Tall & Urban News

Tech Giant to Build New Office Tower in Bellevue

While the specifics of the proposed building may change as it undergoes review, the size suggests room for nearly 4,200 employees. Image source: The Seattle Times
While the specifics of the proposed building may change as it undergoes review, the size suggests room for nearly 4,200 employees. Image source: The Seattle Times
03 July 2019 | Bellevue, United States

Amazon plans to build a 43-story tower in Bellevue, projected to be its tallest office building anywhere, as well as possibly becoming the city’s tallest building. The new tower would accommodate several thousand employees and signal a deeper commitment to grow in the city across Lake Washington from Seattle, where it has amassed a significant portfolio of office leases.

The company on 2 July 2019 began the formal permitting process for the proposed building, referred to as Bellevue 600. The site is located in the east half of the Bellevue Corporate Plaza property at 600 108th Avenue N.E. that it purchased in April for US$195 million.

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While the specifics of the proposed building may change as it undergoes review, the size outlined in the company’s pre-application to the city of Bellevue suggests room for nearly 4,200 employees, using the ratio implied by Amazon’s latest Seattle tower. That project—the $650-million, 1.2-million-square-foot (111,484 square-meter) re:Invent tower across from the Spheres in the Denny Regrade—will accommodate some 5,000 Amazonians, who are expected to begin moving in this month, the company said in early July.

Bellevue 600 would be Amazon’s first construction project in the city where the commerce giant was born 25 years ago, and where it is moving an entire corporate division—the worldwide operations organization responsible for delivery of customer orders. Amazon has secured a half-dozen other major leases of planned or existing Bellevue offices since 2016, which total approximately 1.8 million square feet (167,225 square meters).

By 2024, the anticipated completion date of the Bellevue 600 tower, Amazon would have enough space in the city for more than 11,000 employees, The Seattle Times estimates, using the re:Invent ratio of employees to building size. The company has not confirmed that estimate. Amazon has said only that it plans to house “several thousand” employees in Bellevue over the coming years. The city of Bellevue does not have an updated forecast of employment growth from Amazon’s expansion, a city spokesman has said.

Amazon is expanding in Bellevue to tap potential employees on the Eastside who don’t want to commute to Seattle, where it also continues adding workers. The company has more than 540 job openings in Bellevue, mostly in operations technology focused on last-mile delivery. Part of the strategy is to make room for continued growth in Seattle, where it has nearly 11,000 job openings and employs more than 45,000 people.

Amazon praised Bellevue’s amenities, quality of life, and business-friendly environment. “We look forward to growing our presence in Bellevue and bringing thousands of jobs to the city,” an Amazon spokesman said in a statement. “This includes employees already based in Bellevue, new hires, and the move of some Global Operations teams currently based in Seattle to accommodate continued expansion of other teams in our South Lake Union campus.”

Amazon has some 11.5 million square feet (1,068,385 square meters) of office space in Seattle across their 47 buildings.

In Bellevue, Amazon’s new tower site fronts a main transit hub, and is within a block of the Link light-rail station slated to open in 2023. A 2017 zoning change allowed for buildings as high as 600 feet (183 meters) in certain parts of downtown.

The tallest buildings currently include the Bellevue Towers and Lincoln Square towers, at 450 feet (137 meters), the previous maximum height. They were built as part of a construction boom that has seen Bellevue’s skyline transform within the last decade.

For more on this story go to The Seattle Times.