Downtown Seattle Association
Mayor Wilson’s $9.1B Seattle Budget Spares Employers a JumpStart Hike, Tightens the Screws on Apartment Fees
Mayor Katie B. Wilson's first proposed budget closes an inherited $175 million General Fund gap through spending cuts rather than a JumpStart payroll...
Downtown Seattle Draws Nearly 3.8MM Visitors in August, Topping 2019 as Office Return Holds at 62%
Nearly 3.8 million unique visitors and 9.2 million total visits flowed into downtown Seattle in August, pushing tourism, hotel demand and residential occupancy...
Formation Report Warns Seattle’s Office Vacancy and Tax Base Are Locked in a Downward Spiral
A new independent assessment of Seattle's economy finds the city's record office vacancy and its reliance on a handful of tech employers for...
Seattle Sits Out the National Office Occupancy Index Even as Puget Sound Landlords Chase the Same Answer
The most widely cited measure of the American return to office does not track Seattle, leaving Puget Sound owners and lenders to benchmark...
Downtown Seattle Sets Recovery Records as Office Vacancy Climbs Near 35%
The Downtown Seattle Association’s July data shows apartment occupancy, hotel demand and transit ridership all beating or matching pre-pandemic benchmarks, even as office...
Downtown Seattle Draws 3.7MM Visitors in July as Worker Return Stalls at 64%
Downtown Seattle's summer visitor boom pushed foot traffic to 112 percent of pre-pandemic levels in July, yet the daytime office workforce remained stuck...
Mayor Wilson Appoints Kelli Larsen as Director of Seattle Office of Housing
Mayor Katie B. Wilson has tapped a five-year veteran of the Seattle Office of Housing, Kelli Larsen, to run the agency and execute...
World Cup Drives More Than 3MM Visitors to Downtown Seattle Across Six Match Days, Lifting Transit and Hotel Demand
Downtown Seattle absorbed a surge of more than 3 million visitors during the six 2026 FIFA World Cup matches it hosted, a 17...
Ferguson’s 26-Member Economic Council Carries a Permitting Mandate as Downtown Seattle Vacancy Hits 36.5%
Gov. Bob Ferguson’s newly created Governor’s Economic Development Council arrives with an explicit charge to dismantle regulatory barriers to growth, seating six members...
Seattle’s World Cup Payday Ran on Room Rates, Not Crowds, as the Retail Boom Stopped at a Few Blocks
Seattle’s month as a FIFA World Cup host generated record hotel revenue and record downtown foot traffic, but the underlying data shows a...
Seattle Economic Development Chief Signals Retreat From JumpStart Tax Expansion as Downtown Vacancy Tops 30%
Seattle’s new economic development director, Beto Yarce, says the city is exploring revenue options other than expanding its JumpStart payroll tax, even as...
Downtown Seattle Association Report Blames JumpStart Payroll Tax for Downtown’s Decline as Backers Defend $388MM Revenue Engine
A new Downtown Seattle Association report argues that Seattle’s five-year-old JumpStart payroll tax has helped push jobs, employers and office value across Lake...
