Amazon is growing so fast in Seattle, it’s hard to keep up.
The tech giant is preparing to move into more than 540,000 square feet of additional office space in three existing buildings north of downtown Seattle — in the Denny Triangle, Belltown and on Elliott Ave. W. — according to city permits and county property records.
The Seattle Times reported the news overnight, noting that Amazon has also signed a lease with Paul Allen’s Vulcan Inc. for space in a newly renovated building at Republican Street and Yale Avenue North, near Interstate 5 and just east of its existing campus in Seattle’s South Lake Union neighborhood.
Amazon’s newly leased office buildings are at 2201 6th Ave (Blanchard Plaza); 2301 5th Avenue; and 635 Elliott Ave. W. The new space is in addition to the three-block campus that Amazon is building in Seattle’s Denny Triangle neighborhood, and additional property northwest of that new campus where the company has acquired rights for future expansion.
The company’s worldwide employment has skyrocketed in recent years, approaching 125,000 employees as of the end of the first quarter.
Amazon has bucked the trend of tech companies expanding in the suburbs, choosing instead to increase its footprint inside the city.
“We could have built a suburban campus,” Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said at the company’s recent shareholder meeting, noting that a location outside of the city might have saved the company money. “I think it would have been the wrong decision.”
