Seattle’s head tax proposal took root quickly, and it was approved by the city council earlier this year only to be scrapped just days following that decision. Amazon, which would have been the largest single payer of the head tax, will have an opportunity to keep its growth trajectory in the region but be less exposed to other possible taxation schemes. Last week, according to two sources and a public filing by the landlord, the company expanded its presence in Bellevue, where it signed a lease for the entire building that is for now still home to Expedia.
Amazon’s lease will commence in 2020, and the lease was signed for 16 years, according to a public document filed by its owner, Equity Commonwealth, a Chicago-based commercial real estate investor.
Tower 333 is a 20-story building in Bellevue’s central business district. The building was built in 2008, and for most of the time since then, it had been known as the home of Expedia, the online travel agency. The building, located at 333 108th Avenue NE covers 440,565 square feet, according to the owner’s web site, and it offers a half-acre outdoor plaza and 8-level underground parking garage. The building is LEED and Energy Star certified.
According to published reports, Expedia’s lease will be expiring in December of 2019, and the company will continue to work on its plan to relocate its headquarters to Seattle’s Elliott Bay waterfront. According to plans submitted to and approved by the city of Seattle, Expedia’s new campus will consist of 15 buildings with 1,194,592 square feet of office space in Phase I and 2,671 parking spaces.
As for Amazon, the Seattle-based technology behemoth had already made inroads into Bellevue. In October of 2016, the company announced that it had signed a lease with Bellevue-based Schnitzer West to fully occupy Centre 425, a 350,000-square-foot office development. Located at 425 106th Avenue N.E., Centre 425 is a 16-story office building designed by Seattle-based architecture firm NBBJ. Amenities of the project include a high-tech conference and training center, fitness center and a large great room. The building is a short walk to Tower 333.
