By Meghan Hall
Nestlé has signed a lease for 47,500 square feet of Class A office space at Los Angeles-based Hudson Pacific Properties’ 450 Alaskan in Seattle’s Pioneer Square, according to a fourth quarter report released by Colliers International at the end of 2018. The lease comes just months after Starbuck and Nestlé announced in August 2018 a deal in which Vevey, Switzerland-based Nestlé was granted the perpetual rights to market Starbucks Consumer Packaged Goods outside the company’s coffee shops.
The lease comes at the end of a quarter that surpassed 2017 office leasing absorption levels and as Seattle finished the year as one of the best performing office markets in the country, Colliers reports. Vacancy fell to 7.6 percent during the fourth quarter thanks to 896,174 square feet of net absorption. The price for Class A office space — particularly for space in Seattle’s Central Business District — is hovering around $50 per square foot, Colliers says.
Approximately 500 Starbucks employees in the United States and Europe will join the Nestlé teams based in Seattle and London. The company currently has 22 job openings in the Seattle region, ranging from program managers to customer sales finance managers to market product managers to senior data analysts and operations analysts. The distribution of those employees is yet unclear, although the Swiss company is estimated to have around 220 workers in the Puget Sound region today. The new lease is anticipated to begin in February 2019, according to the report.
The company paid around $7.15 billion to sell Starbucks products ranging from Starbuck’s Teavana products to its K-Cup pods, instant coffee and ready to drink products.
Right on the water, the site is located within walking distance to the King Street light rail station, CenturyLink Field, the home of the Seattle Sounders and the Seahawks, and Safeco Field— soon to be named T-Mobile Park — home of the Seattle Mariners. Interstate 5 is roughly a mile away. Co-working giant Regus US signed a 46,382 square lease at the same development through 2030 at the end of 2017. The building is an 8-story, 168,000 square foot office development designed by Seattle-based NBBJ. 9,000 square feet of on-site retail and a 3,800 square foot rooftop deck with a conference center and amenity space are also part of the building.
According to the property’s website, there are currently three spaces available for lease at 23,728, 23,750 and 75,415 square feet, respectively. The property is one of five historic buildings part of Hudson Pacific Properties’ portfolio in greater Pioneer Square, which includes 505 First Ave. S., 83 King St., 411 First Ave. and 95 Jackson.
