Microsoft Backs Away From 1.1 MSF Seattle-Area Expansion

Microsoft Redmond Main Campus – Redevelopment. Rendering courtesy of Microsoft

In a move that’s consistent with other recent retrenchments by the tech industry, Microsoft Corp. has withdrawn plans to expand its RedWest North campus in Redmond, Wash., the Puget Sound Business Journal reported, based on public records.

In the fall of 2021, Microsoft had filed a proposal with the City of Redmond to develop four buildings totaling more than 1.1 million square feet, plus an underground parking structure with a central plaza above, all on 26 acres at 14848 NE 51st St., adjacent to Route 520. Three five-story buildings on this RedWest South campus were to be accompanied by a three-story “amenity building” with food venues and multi-purpose meeting rooms, with a direct connection to an outdoor terraced amphitheater.

The PSBJ reported that it’s not known whether Microsoft plans to continue development of this campus at a later time.

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The RedWest South expansion was cancelled as Microsoft is slowing its separate $5 billion redevelopment of its east campus, according to the PSBJ. That project reportedly is to encompass demolishing various older buildings and delivering 17 new ones by the middle of 2025.

A Microsoft spokesperson informed the PSBJ that the company still intends to open the first of eight modernized buildings late this year.

Tech slows down

Many tech companies have not done well since the pandemic’s onset, with Amazon’s ongoing trimming of its logistics space growth being a prime example.

Microsoft is retrenching its office commitments, both across the Puget Sound region and much more widely, the PSBJ reported.

For example, it will be declining to renew several office leases in Bellevue and Issaquah, Wash., through 2025. Further, Microsoft reportedly has ceased development of a 90-acre campus in Atlanta.

Last summer, a Hines–Invesco Real Estate joint venture sold Atlantic Yards, a 523,511-square-foot campus in Midtown Atlanta, to Global Atlantic Financial Group, for an estimated $500 million. The property is fully leased to Microsoft.