Amazon-Leased Seattle Landmark Trades for $580M

300 Pine St. Image courtesy of KKR

KKR, in a joint venture with Seattle-based Urban Renaissance Group LLC, has purchased a 770,000-square-foot landmark office building in Seattle’s retail core. According to the Puget Sound Business Journal, the deal closed at roughly $580 million.

A former Macy’s flagship store, the eight-story asset at 300 Pine St. takes up a full block between Third and Fourth avenues. Amazon is the sole occupant of the office portion, according to CommercialEdge data. Seller Starwood Capital Group acquired the property gradually between 2015 and 2020, converting the 1920s historic building into a predominantly office asset.  

Investing in Puget Sound

The latest deal marks KKR’s fourth investment in the Puget Sound Region. The company’s portfolio includes F5 Tower, a 43-story Class A high-rise in downtown Seattle, as well as a three-building, 915,000-square-foot office complex and a 20-story tower, both in Bellevue, Wash.’s central business district.

Global investment firm KKR made its Puget Sound debut in late 2019, when it spent a cumulated $1.2 billion on the purchase of a collection of Class A office properties in central Seattle and Bellevue, Wash.

In a record-breaking deal roughly two years ago, Touchstone—a local developer that is now a subsidiary of Urban Renaissance Group—sold two Amazon-occupied Class A+ office towers to Ponte Gadea for $740 million. At the time, the transaction marked the largest single-asset deal by volume in Seattle.

Planned upgrades

Originally built in 1929 as a Bon Marché department store, 300 Pine St. was vertically expanded in 1955 with four additional stories. More recently, then-owner Macy’s sold the upper six floors between 2015 and 2017, followed by the store’s final closing in 2020.

The new ownership is planning to renovate the art-deco structure that is poised to encompass 85,000 square feet of upgraded ground-floor retail space designated for flagship stores, along with 682,000 square feet of office space. The office segment will have 80,000-square-foot floorplates and seismic retrofitting. The top two floors will receive additional natural lighting through more than 20 skylights.

The upgraded property will feature a 20,000-square-foot rooftop deck and will offer 15-foot ceiling heights. The retail space, situated above the underground Westlake Light Rail Station, will be known as The Bon Marché Collective. The retail suits will range from 3,000 to 16,600 square feet. Current tenant Victrola Coffee will continue to operate at the building’s southwest corner.