By Jack Stubbs
Even as 2019 comes to a close towards the end of fourth quarter, it seems that the commercial real estate market shows little signs of slowing heading towards the new year. On December 5th, in a transaction that only recently recorded, the Amazon Alexandria building, also known as 1800 Ninth Avenue Building, sold for $206.25 million, or around $653 per square foot, King County records show.
The buyer of the 315,837 square foot property was 1800 Ninth Acquisition LLC, an entity affiliated with the Los Angeles office of New York-based JP Morgan Investment Management Inc. (JP Morgan), and the seller was Hart 1800 Ninth Avenue LLC, an entity affiliated with Heitman Capital Management based in Chicago.
Heitman Capital Management previously acquired the Class A property in late 2013 from a joint venture between Atlanta, GA-based PGIM Real Estate and Seattle-based Talon Private Capital for $150.5 million, or about $476 per square foot, according to public documents.
Located in the heart of downtown Seattle’s Belltown neighborhood and just south of Denny Triangle—where Amazon has a significant presence, with The Spheres just blocks away—1800 Ninth Avenue comprises 16 stories and totals 315,837 square feet, according to the property’s web site.
At the time of the property’s sale in 2013, Amazon occupied roughly half of the space within the building. According to Google Maps, some of the current tenants include Regence BlueShield and Cambia Grove.
1800 Ninth is also just blocks from several of the technology giant’s corporate offices, including the Amazon Doppler building—located at 2021 7th Ave—and the Amazon Kumo building located at 1915 Terry Ave.
Amazon has shown little signs of pulling back on its presence in the Emerald City and across Lake Washington, of late. In mid-September, the company leased nearly 500,000 square feet of space in Prologis’ cutting-edge Georgetown Crossroads project in South Seattle, with Home Depot expected to lease the remaining 90,000 square feet.
In mid-July, project materials submitted to the City of Bellevue by Seneca Development on behalf of Amazon for Bellevue 600, an in-the-works project in downtown Bellevue that will ultimately comprise 1,036,000 square across 43 stories. Amazon purchased the project site—currently developed with the 256,830 square foot Bellevue Corporate Plaza—in April of 2019 for $195 million, according to King County public records. The 10-story structure and adjacent 650-stall parking structure was sold by Chicago-based real estate equity investment trust Equity Commonwealth.
2,000 Amazon employees currently work in Bellevue — the city where the firm was founded — and the submittal of plans for 600 Bellevue indicate the company’s long-term commitment to growth on the Eastside.
