Despite its well-publicized political challenges, TikTok continues to grow its local presence, most recently in downtown Bellevue’s Key Center tower. The company will occupy approximately one-third of the building as it further expands in the Puget Sound region.
TikTok, owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, signed a lease for approximately 45,000 square feet of Key Center space in the first quarter. The social media company already occupies 110,000 square feet of space in the tower on 108th Avenue NE, subleased between 2021 and 2023 from SAP Concur. The new space spreads across two floors of the tower and is subleased from Meta. Now in total, TikTok has almost 300,000 square feet of office space in downtown Bellevue.
TikTok’s expansion in our area is reportedly part of a strategy to compete against Amazon. Last year, The Information reported that the company’s aggressive hiring in Puget Sound is an effort to compete for talent with the dominant player in the e-commerce industry. Recently, TikTok had 950 open roles. With its targeted expansion, TikTok seems to follow in the wake of other large tech companies by taking over their office space.
Despite its growth in the Puget Sound area, TikTok faces uncertainty. Congress is considering a ban on the social media platform unless a U.S. buyer comes to the table and ByteDance moves to divest its American operations.
Despite a lower office vacancy rate than downtown Seattle, downtown Bellevue has seen recent exits, including by Microsoft, which used to be the city’s largest employer. In the meantime, TikTok’s Bellevue expansion – as well as the recent large lease signed by Pokemon Co. International in a new Bellevue office tower – is a boost to a flagging regional office market.
This post was based on information found on Puget Sound Business Journal. Photo credit: loopnet.com.
