Amazon’s first home has a new owner.
The house at 10704 N.E. 28th St. in Bellevue, Wash., formerly rented by Jeff Bezos as he was just getting the company off the ground, sold recently for $1.52 million, above the list price of $1.49 million. Records filed with King County list the buyer as Peng Chen, with scant additional details other than Chen’s status as a “married individual” with “his/her separate estate.”
Even with the sale complete, the fate of the oversized mailbox that sat on the curb for decades and become part of technology lore remains unknown. The mailbox is believed to have been used by Bezos and the company’s early employees to accommodate the book catalogs they were receiving for the online bookstore back when the company was known as Cadabra, Inc.
The listing agent, Pat Sullivan of John L. Scott Real Estate declined to comment this week, and GeekWire has been unable to get in touch with the new owner.
The mailbox was removed from the curb as a security precaution after the home was put on the market earlier this year. It’s not clear if the mailbox will be passed along to the new owner of the home or remain the property of the previous owners.
The house sold for more than double the $620,000 it fetched a decade ago. Housing prices have skyrocketed since the home last changed hands in 2009, thanks in part to the rise of Amazon itself and the rest of the surging technology scene in the region.
Much of the 65-year-old, 3-bedroom, 1.75-bath house has been renovated since Bezos rented it in the mid 1990s. Sullivan said in February he didn’t put a premium on the price as a result of the history, and the listing price was in line with current market value.
As tech journalists in the Seattle region, we’ve been keeping tabs on this house for years, given the historical significance, and we often cite it as inspiration for startups. From this modest suburban home emerged one of the most valuable and influential companies in the world.
The sale comes at a time when Amazon is making major investments in its original hometown of Bellevue. After establishing an office there in 2017, the company began growing rapidly, scooping up several office buildings, with rumors pointing to even further expansion. The company last week confirmed plans to move the crucial worldwide operations teams to Bellevue.
