By Meghan Hall
Fresh off of its $195 million acquisition of the Bellevue Corporate Center last week, Amazon has signed a lease for downtown Bellevue’s Binary Towers, according to sources familiar with the deal. The proposed towers, located at 1001 106th Ave. NE., will total 715,000 square feet upon their completion in 2022. The project is currently under development by Dallas, Texas-based Trammell Crow Company and Whippany, N.J.-based Metlife Investment Management.
“The Binary Towers are located at the intersection of NE 10th Street and 106th Ave NE, with excellent access to urban housing, restaurants, hotels, the retail core and freeways and mass transit, providing easy access to commuters,” said Mike Nelson, Managing Director of Trammell Crow Company’s Seattle Business Unit in prepared statement. “Amazon has signed two long-term, full-building leases to continue to build their teams in Bellevue.”
The 2.3-acre property was formerly used as a Cadillac dealership. According to King County property records, MetLife committed the property to a limited liability company, of which Trammell Crow was the grantee, on March 22, 2019. The value of the transaction was $46 million. The project has yet to break ground, and City documents indicate that the Binary Towers project is still undergoing review and is seeking land use approval. The two, 15-story towers will also include street level retail and active uses, as well as 7 levels of underground parking.
Trammell Crow and Metlife have also worked together previously in the region. Together, the pair developed Midtown21, a 21-story Class A office building located in Seattle’s Denny Triangle, blocks from Amazon’s corporate headquarters. The 373,458 square foot tower was completed in December 2016. Amazon leased the entire property in November 2016 prior to the development’s completion and moved into the building in late 2017. Some of the building’s corporate amenities include a concierge service, central conferencing center and business-inspired great room.
With major companies, including Amazon, nabbing space in downtown Bellevue, developers are keen to get in on the action, and city planning documents indicate that several large commercial office projects are in the works. Among them is Bellevue Plaza, an 880,000 square foot office development to be located at 117 106th Ave. NE., just up the street from Binary Towers. The project is currently in the design review phases. 555 108th Ave. NE., which is also in the design review phase, will be a 42-story office building accompanied by a low rise pavilion. Both projects are proposed by Vulcan Real Estate.
In addition to Vulcan, Skanska announces in July of 2018 that it purchased a 77,000 square-foot land parcel at the corner of 108th Avenue NE and NE 8th Street in downtown Bellevue, which it hopes to develop into a 500,000 square foot project. Located in Bellevue’s downtown core, the land parcel is located near major Bellevue employers, including Microsoft’s Bellevue Campus, Amazon, Salesforce, Paccar, Symetra, Expedia and Concur.
“The Bellevue commercial office market is incredibly dynamic with a diverse set of industry-leading tenants fueling the Eastside’s growth. Given favorable market dynamics, our team is eager to move this project forward quickly to create something truly remarkable for the surrounding community, the city of Bellevue and future tenants,” said Skanska Executive Vice President Murphy McCullough at the time the project had been announced.
Metlife declined The Registry’s request for comment.
