Hines Breaks Ground on Seattle-Area Tower, Amazon Is Reported Tenant
The developer has preleased the entire 347,220-square-foot office building in Bellevue, Wash., reportedly to the e-commerce giant. The sustainable property is slated for completion in the fourth quarter of 2020.
Summit III. Rendering courtesy of Hines
Hines has broken ground on Summit III, a 17-story Class A office building in the Seattle suburb of Bellevue, Wash., after fully preleasing the tower to an undisclosed tenant rumored to be Amazon. The 374,220-square-foot, sustainable property is designed to house a high-density tech firm.
The base building will be complete and handed over in the fourth quarter 2020, a representative of Hines told Commercial Property Executive. The developer declined to comment when asked about the identity of the tenant.
The Puget Sound Business Journal reported in December that Seattle-based e-commerce giant Amazon had leased the tower. In a market research report released in January, Colliers International said that Amazon had taken up 280,000 square feet in the upcoming project.
Amazon is already said to be renting space from WeWork in the adjacent Summit II building and has leased out the entire 400,000-square-foot office building across the street from the Summit III site. The tech firm plans to relocate its entire Seattle-based global operations team to Bellevue by 2023, according to an internal email revealed by GeekWire in April.
Mountain views for tech tenant
The Summit I & II. Image courtesy of Hines
Summit III is being built atop an existing seven-story underground parking garage at the corner of 108th Avenue NE and NE 4th Street in central Bellevue. As the third building in The Summit complex, the property will neighbor Summit I, an 11-story building completed in 2002, and Summit II, a 13-story building developed in 2005.
The existing pair of buildings provide 540,000 square feet of office and retail space and represent the first two phases of a development master plan created by LMN Architects in 1999. Hines Global REIT acquired the office complex, including the fully entitled site for the third building, from Ivanhoe Cambridge in 2015. The city of Bellevue approved permits for the Summit III development last year.
Designed by a team of LMN, Magnusson Klemencic Associates, ME Engineers, Berger Partnership, Pace Engineering Services and Hines Conceptual Construction Group, the new development has received LEED v4 Gold pre-certification and will exceed Washington State Energy Code performance by 15 percent.
Summit III will feature full-height, 9-foot-10-inch windows, providing ample exterior glazing and mountain views. Existing amenities at the complex include a conference center, fitness center, Café Pogacha restaurant and Bright Horizons child care facility.
Amazon expands in Bellevue
Jeff Bezos, founder & CEO, Amazon. Image courtesy of Seattle City Council via Wikimedia Commons
Amazon was formed in a Bellevue garage in 1994, and today the e-commerce firm, which is the second-largest employer in the U.S., is ramping up its presence in the city across Lake Washington from Seattle. Last August, the company signed a lease for the entire Expedia headquarters building at 333 108th Ave. NE, just across the street from Summit III.
The company has also leased out the entirety of Center 425, a 16-story, 345,000-square foot building a few blocks west of The Summit complex. In addition, Amazon occupies WeWork space in Summit II, according to an account in the Seattle Times.
Just last week, Amazon began the formal permitting process for a proposed 43-story, 1 million-square-foot skyscraper called Bellevue 600. The project sits within the Bellevue Corporate Plaza, which the company acquired earlier this year for $195 million. The planned tower would be the tallest yet in Bellevue.
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