City Center Plaza in Downtown Bellevue has begun to sneak up upon completion. This half million square foot building according to the Puget Sound Business Journal in a recent write up, has only El Gaucho as a signed retail tenant.
Other buildings in the area such as, Tower 333 and The Bravern Office Commons, have almost 100% occupancy, including tenants such as Microsoft and Expedia.
Dex and Sharebuilder, which we reported to be rumored to move into City Center Plaza have either relocated elsewhere (Dex) or are looking at other possibilities in Seattle (Sharebuilder). It has also been rumored for a while now that Microsoft might want more office space in Bellevue, and that they could be a large potential tenant for the City Center building as well.
The City Center building is thought to have been holding out for larger tenants, but if any more time passes, they might have to start looking into signing many smaller businesses to the building.
Is this a sign that the commercial real estate market is coming to a slow in Bellevue, or is the vacancy just a result of a stubbornness to lease the building to smaller companies hoping that a large tenant will come along swooping up the whole building?
Photo referenced from PSBJ: Dan Schlatter
In my opinion the big Microsoft lease deal with Schnitzer really saved a lot of developers, but will it be enough to save the ones without the big tenants signed – or the ones who won’t come online for some time? Only time will tell, but my bet is that there are going to be some tough times ahead, which will translate into job layoffs, companies downsizing and eliminating need for space – driving up the vacancy rates and the rental rates back down.
Hey, whatever happened to Vikrant? Haven’t seen any posts from him recently.
Thank God it’s over. Finally we will see a temporary end to the permanent construction mess, the ugly condo multi family construction and conversion blight, and the multitude of “Proposed Land Use Action” signs that indicate more of the natural Seattle paradise is being paved over for horribly density and too many people. Go back to California if you want to take away the natural beauty we grew up with. Thank god for recessions.
Well, there are pluses and minuses to “progress” Anon. I grew up here too and have seen a lot of changes, but don’t remember a lot of natural beauty in downtown Bellevue. Blackberry fields never really did it for me. I do miss the woods and all the natural ponds down by Hidden Valley though – and the old blueberry fields by the post office on Bellevue Way, but they’ve been gone for well over 20 years.
BTW – why do you feel like you have to post anonymously?
Oh, you don’t have to go that far. If you want ‘natural beauty’ and backward living, just drive a little east to Issaquah and Sammamish…plenty of trees there for you to hug!
I like Bellevue the way it is and the way it’s going…up and high!
most of the places around bellevue that have the signs up are blights, I can’t wait until they are demo’ed.
My main complaint is the closing of sidewalks for so long, it seems some can do it for years…
Wondering if Motricity will move its headquarters to the City Center Plaza.
Well, you have 18 cranes in Bellevue and 1000’s of condos coming on line. The only way for rents to go is down. It is a cycle and it is time for the down swing.