929 Office Tower. Rendering via LMN Architects
929 Office Tower in downtown Bellevue. Rendering via LMN Architects

Salesforce.com, the $50 billion cloud giant led by Marc Benioff, appears to be putting down a bigger stake in the Pacific Northwest.

The company reportedly has a pending lease for 75,000 square feet in the 19-story 929 Officer Tower in downtown Bellevue, according to a report in the Broderick Group’s Eastside Office Market Overview.

The arrival of Salesforce.com would be a shot in the arm for Bellevue, which is losing high-profile downtown tenant Expedia in 2019. The company is moving to the Seattle waterfront, taking over the former Amgen campus along Elliott Bay.

The Broderick Group notes in its report that 2016 will be a “critical time” in the Eastside market, with just six percent of the new construction pre-leased. About 1.5 million square feet of new space will be added to Bellevue, primarily across three properties: Trammell Crow’s 929 Building (460,000 square feet), Schnitzer’s Centre 425 (354,000 square feet); and Kemper Development’s Lincoln Square Expansion (710,000 square feet).

“The ability for the Eastside office market to absorb this square footage at a time when the historical driver of our market, Microsoft, is not active, remains a major concern,” the Broderick Group notes.

Source: Broderick Group
Source: Broderick Group

Salesforce.com has been growing its presence in the Seattle area over the years, acquiring Seattle startup Thinkfuse in 2012 and buying Seattle startup Clipboard in 2013. The company maintains offices in downtown Seattle, and it is unclear whether the company plans to consolidate operations in the new building in Bellevue.

The new offices in downtown Bellevue could provide room for more than 375 people, when calculating roughly 200 square feet per person.

The 929 Office Tower is being developed by Trammel Crow Company, and is set to open early next year. It encompasses 460,000 square feet.

Earlier this year, rumors circulated that Microsoft was considering buying Salesforce.com for $55 billion, but Benioff reportedly wanted closer to $70 billion for the maker of cloud-based customer relationship management software.

The Puget Sound Business Journal reported on the Broderick Group’s report and Salesforce.com’s pending lease earlier today.

 

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