Tall & Urban News

In yet another sign that Amazon is cooling on its hometown of Seattle, the retail-entertainment-tech giant says it is planning to move its entire Seattle-based worldwide operations team to suburban Bellevue over the next few years.

The relocation will spark a mass migration of thousands of employees from Seattle across Lake Washington to Bellevue by 2023.

“We’re very excited to have Amazon coming to Bellevue,” said John Chelminiak, Mayor of Bellevue. “It is a great company that was born in Bellevue, so we’re happy to have them back. This is also good news, I think, for the region, because the jobs stay here.” Chelminiak projects 2,500 net jobs gained by 2023 through the move.

The move was first reported by GeekWire, which cited an internal email sent Wednesday from Dave Clark, the senior vice president of the worldwide operations team, to his employees. An Amazon spokesperson confirmed the authenticity of the report.

“We opened our first office building in Bellevue in 2017. It’s a city with great amenities, a high-quality of life for our employees, and fantastic talent – and it’s recognized for its business-friendly environment,” the spokesperson said. “We look forward to continue growing our presence in Bellevue and bringing more jobs to the city.”

Amazon’s worldwide operations division, with thousands of employees, is one of the company’s largest and most important teams, responsible for supervising 250,000 workers at its 175 fulfillment centers around the world and delivering packages to customers’ doors. The team also manages Amazon’s thousands of delivery truck trailers and its fleet of 40 airplanes.

The planned relocation is just the latest sign that Amazon is falling out of love with Seattle and developing a growing affection for Bellevue.

“If they weren’t annoyed deeply about something they wouldn’t be leaving, and I hope that Seattle pays attention,” said Kemper Freeman of Bellevue-based Kemper Development Company. The company’s strained relations with Seattle became very public last year, when the City Council passed a head tax that would have cost Amazon and other large companies about $275 per employee, per year, for the next five years.

The council quickly rescinded the tax after Amazon and other businesses protested, but Amazon soon after signaled it was abandoning earlier plans to occupy all 722,000 square feet (67,000 square meters) of office space in the mammoth Rainier Square skyscraper under construction in Seattle. Instead, Amazon is subleasing the space to other businesses.

When asked if he’d push for a head tax for Amazon and other tech firms in Bellevue, Chelminiak said, “We are not planning any head tax in Bellevue.”

In addition, Amazon already has signed a 16-year lease for a Bellevue office tower at 333 108th Avenue NE with enough office space for 4,500 employees. The lease will encompass all of the 20-story building’s office space starting in 2020. The company also is reportedly planning to buy the nearby 10-story Bellevue Corporate Plaza.

All of that activity signals a major move by Amazon into Bellevue – the city where Jeff Bezos originally founded the company in the garage of his home – and by all appearances is just the start of a closer relationship with the city.

Yet even if Amazon does decide to establish a larger presence on the eastern side of Lake Washington, the fact remains that it will still retain a huge footprint and many thousands of employees in its headquarters city of Seattle.

The company currently has more than 45,000 employees at its Seattle headquarters, and has job openings for nearly 10,000 more employees in Seattle.

And that means it will remain a major player in the city’s future, despite its latest moves to expand elsewhere.

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