The Pokémon Company’s move into The Eight was the single largest driver of Downtown Bellevue’s office market recovery in the second quarter of 2026, according to Broderick Group’s latest Eastside Office Market Report.
The gaming and entertainment company’s occupancy at The Eight totaled 369,800 square feet, more than any other transaction in the Bellevue central business district this quarter. Broderick Group, the commercial real estate firm that compiles the report, identified the move as the leading factor behind the CBD’s improved numbers, which saw vacancy fall to 23.2% and availability drop to 23.6%, declines of roughly 2.5 and 3 percentage points, respectively, from the first quarter.
The entire Bellevue CBD absorbed 366,168 square feet of office space this quarter, meaning the Pokémon Company’s move alone was bigger than the district’s total net gain. That shows just how much this one deal shaped the market. Downtown Bellevue also continued to attract most of the Eastside’s office demand this quarter, a trend Broderick Group has called the defining feature of the market’s slow recovery.
The Eight has been an active building for Broderick Group to track this quarter. In addition to the Pokémon Company’s occupancy, the tower also saw Nscale, a company new to the Bellevue market, sign for a full floor totaling 23,819 square feet, part of a broader wave of AI-focused firms establishing a presence in Downtown Bellevue.
Broderick Group says the quarter’s recovery came less from a few big headline deals and more from steady, smaller leases signed by many different companies. Still, the Pokémon Company’s move is one of the biggest single deals the firm has tracked in the CBD this year, along with Uber’s 170,103-square-foot lease at the newly built Four106 tower.
According to the 2026 Eastside Office Market Report, the full-floor availability study shows the pool of large blocks in Downtown Bellevue continuing to shrink, with full-floor tenants now facing 51 fewer options than at the market’s peak of availability in July 2024.
Occupancies of the scale the Pokémon Company signed at The Eight are a factor in that tightening, as landlords work through both vacant floors and space still coming available.
