By Kate Snyder
An office tower north of Seattle’s downtown has gained a new tenant through a sublease. According to a recent report from the Puget Sound Business Journal, Moderna, Inc., is taking 54,350 square feet of space at Hudson Pacific Properties’ Hill7 building. According to the report, Moderna is possibly taking over a lease from WeWork.
Located at 1099 Stewart St., Hill7 is an 11-story, Class A office building positioned in the city’s Denny Triangle neighborhood. Hudson acquired the 285,680 square foot property in 2016 through a joint venture with the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board for approximately $180 million, or about $630 per square foot, according to The Registry’s previous reporting. Other tenants include creative and technology companies, according to the property’s website.
Moderna is a biotechnology company specializing in messenger RNA therapeutics and vaccines. The firm currently has 48 mRNA programs in development of which 38 are in active clinical trials. Currently, the company has operations in 17 countries worldwide.
Earlier this year, Moderna announced that it plans to expand its U.S. presence and establish a corporate presence on the west coast with new offices in South San Francisco and Seattle. In Seattle, Moderna plans to provide technology solutions across the enterprise and further scale the implementation of artificial intelligence and cloud-based tools across the platform. The firm also plans to hire approximately 2,000 new employees globally by the end of 2023. Moderna’s west coast presence joins additional offices in Cambridge and Norwood, Mass., Atlanta, Ga., Bethesda, Md., and Princeton, N.J.
“Our team has continued to push beyond what we ever imagined possible to completely reimagine how medicines are created and delivered. We are making significant investments in both people and infrastructure to build the most impactful version of Moderna,” Tracey Franklin, chief human resources officer of Moderna, said in a release at the time of the announcement. “At Moderna, we give our people a platform to change medicine and an opportunity to change the world.”
A recent report from Newmark, called “2Q23 Seattle Office Market Overview,” painted a picture of the city’s leasing activity during the past few months. According to the report, the city’s overall vacancy increased to 14.1 percent in the second quarter of 2023, up from the previous quarter, with a direct vacancy at 12.4 percent. Overall asking rates declined during the quarter to $45.08 per square foot, which is a 0.2 percent decrease from the first quarter of 2023.
“Leasing activity over the quarter was sluggish, and active tenants remain unwilling to commit to longer term leases or take large blocks of space,” the report stated, highlighting that most deals completed in the second quarter of 2023 had shorter terms and an average transaction size of less than 5,000 square feet.
