Amazon will be moving into two more towers in Downtown Bellevue at the end of 2023, according to the Puget Sound Business Journal. The buildings are 555 Tower and one of the towers at the West Main development.
555 Tower is a mixed-use office space that is made up of 42-stories. The office space is 695,610 square feet. Located at 555 108th Avenue Northeast, Amazon employees will occupy the lower 19 floors. The final structure beam was placed on the tower in August 2022.
West Main is located at 117 106th Avenue Northeast. The development is made up of three buildings, intended for office and retail space. The office space totals over one million square feet of space.
Seattle-based developer, Vulcan Real Estate, developed both 555 Tower and the West Main development. Both developments are slated to be open at the end of 2023.
Amazon CEO, Andy Jassy, announced mid-February that the company has concluded that everyone should go back to the office together the majority of the time, at least three days per week. There will be certain roles and exceptions to these expectations, but that will be a small minority. They plan to implement this change effective May 1st.
According to the Bellevue Downtown Association, downtown employee foot traffic is currently tracking 67% of early 2020 pre-pandemic levels (Placer.ai, January 2023). This number is expected to grow quickly as more office-based workers come into the office on a regular basis.
Jassy’s letter also mentions that “this shift will provide a boost for the thousands of businesses located around their urban headquarter locations in the Puget Sound, Virginia, Nashville, and the dozens of cities around the world where their employees go to the office.”
Amazon announced in July 2022 that they would be pausing construction on six of their office towers in Bellevue. The six towers total more than three million square feet of space. The tech company plans to complete the exterior core and shell, as well as lobby floors, communal areas, and retail space at Tower 1 at Bellevue 600, 555 Tower, Towers 2 & 3 at West Main, and The Artise.
