By Kate Snyder
Amazon is planning to vacate more space in Seattle. The e-commerce giant is opting not to renew a lease spanning 209,000 square feet in a tower positioned in the city’s downtown, according to a report from the Puget Sound Business Journal.
The lease agreement lasts until February 2024, and Amazon has occupied the space for the past decade, according to the report. The company’s plan is to relocate the 1,100 employees based there to offices elsewhere.
Located at 1800 Ninth Ave., the class A office building is positioned on the crossroads of Seattle’s Central Business District and South Lake Union neighborhoods, which allows users access to dining, shopping and entertainment venues, according to the property’s website.
In May, Amazon announced its intentions to move more employees to its offices in Bellevue. The firm said it would relocate 2,000 employees from its Seattle offices to two new downtown Bellevue towers at the end of 2023 – The West Main Tower 1 and the 555 Tower, which were spared from Amazon’s construction pause in Bellevue last year. The move has been estimated to potentially increase Amazon’s headcount in Bellevue to more than 12,000 employees.
Since that announcement, Amazon has opted to vacate multiple offices in Seattle. In one example, the firm terminated a 17,000 square foot lease at 224 Westlake Ave. N. in the city’s South Lake Union neighborhood earlier this year. The early termination of the lease at 224 Westlake marked the conclusion of a 15-year agreement inked by Amazon back in April 2013, which included provisions for such an action. The lease was officially terminated by Amazon in late July.
Some of the firm’s office space was also subleased by Marcus & Millichap, which decided earlier this year to relocate its Seattle office from Two Union Square to Rainier Square. Marcus & Millichap agreed to occupy roughly 11,000 square feet in a sublease from Amazon on the building’s 32nd floor. Rainier Square was planned to be a major expansion for Amazon in Seattle, and the firm had pre-leased the entire 720,000 square feet of office in the property. The tech behemoth ultimately decided to shift its strategy and focus its expansion further into Bellevue.
