Bellevue has been a center for tech expansion for some time now, and it seems Facebook is only investing deeper in its presence in the Eastside city. In addition to acquiring REI’s never-used new headquarters earlier this year, Facebook has continued to expand across the Eastside.
Bellevue’s Spring District is a growing development for tech office space, and Facebook’s newest pre-lease in the area is the second-largest tech office rental this year, after Amazon’s lease of the 25-story Artise Tower in downtown Bellevue. The Spring District is a 36-acre development with multiple office building projects, along with about 800 apartment units, a possible hotel and light rail projected to be completed in the area by 2023.
Facebook will be leasing a 330,000 square foot office building called Block 5, increasing the company’s total office space in Puget Sound by 10% — up to 3.3 million square feet between Seattle and the Eastside. That’s reportedly enough space for up to 18,800 employees, although Facebook currently only has about 7,000 employees in the region. That’s still up from the 5,430 the company had in the area last fall, though no official reports have been released regarding Facebook’s hiring plans for the future.
Facebook is the primary driver of the $2.8 billion dollar Spring District development. Block Five is the fourth building the company has leased in the Spring District, with five more office buildings totaling 1.4 million square feet left to be developed in the area.
While Facebook has been reluctant to share its future hiring plans, it currently has about 575 openings listed in Seattle and Bellevue, with presumably many more to come.
This article was originally posted on Puget Sound Business Journal by Marc Stiles.
Rendering from theSpringDistrict.com.
