Microsoft Corp. is making further moves to retreat from Bellevue. The company has now officially declared its decision not to renew its most substantial office lease in the city’s downtown, according to the Puget Sound Business Journal. Microsoft, a global powerhouse in the technology industry, currently occupies a sprawling 750,000 square feet of office space in the Bravern towers, situated on the 11100 block of Northeast Eighth Street in Bellevue. The lease is scheduled to expire in 2025 and also represents one of the last leases among several that Microsoft has allowed to lapse over a three-year period.
In recent months, Microsoft has been decreasing office space throughout the Puget Sound region.
Earlier this year, the company announced in an earnings report a new focus on aligning the firm’s cost structure with its revenue and customer demand, prioritizing investments in strategic areas as well as consolidating office space, according to previous reporting from The Registry. The report also referenced the Redmond-based firm’s planned reduction of its overall workforce by approximately 10,000 jobs through the third quarter of fiscal year 2023 – less than five percent of its total employee base – and allocating capital and talent to areas of secular growth and long-term competitiveness while divesting in other areas.
In April, Microsoft announced plans to further downsize its Eastside office space by offering for sublease all six buildings at Millennium Corporate Park in Redmond, which totals approximately 497,193 square feet out of the 537,000 square foot campus. The move follows Microsoft’s earlier plans to reduce its office space by nearly 1.7 million square feet in Bellevue and Issaquah by not renewing multiple leases scheduled to expire between 2023 and 2024. In addition, Microsoft has put on hold the development of a campus expansion project, which was separate from its main campus refresh project.
Microsoft’s decision to downsize its office space is not unique in the tech industry. Facebook parent company Meta Platforms Inc. is also moving out of its Bellevue and Seattle office space and backing out of plans to occupy one of the Spring District buildings. Amazon declined to renew its sizable lease in Seattle’s West 8th office tower, however the firm also announced plans to relocate 2,000 employees from its Seattle offices to two new downtown Bellevue towers at the end of 2023.
