While Bellevue has received an outsized share of office leases in recent years, office space tours are rising faster in Seattle than anywhere else in the region, with a year-over-year increase of 20%. Part of this growth is likely due to the tightening availability of quality office space in Bellevue. Although the Bellevue downtown office market carries a vacancy rate of around 25%, much of the Class A space with premium amenities has already been claimed by major tech companies, leading prospective tenants back to Seattle. The trend offers a bright spot amid a spate of tech cutbacks.
Anthropic, the maker of AI assistant Claude, has set up operations on multiple floors in South Lake Union’s Dexter Yard complex. The firm is already looking to expand to additional floors as well.
Last year, Apple signed Seattle’s biggest lease since 2019, scooping up a former Meta space in South Lake Union. The iPhone maker took more than 190,000 square feet at the Arbor Blocks 333 building and is now in talks to lease the adjacent Arbor Blocks 300 building, which Meta also vacated last year.
With its Issaquah headquarters lease approaching renewal, REI is exploring options in Seattle as well.
Even with renewed leasing momentum, Seattle’s office market faces real vacancy challenges. While areas like the Denny Triangle and South Lake Union have seen positive absorption, the vacancy rate in Seattle’s downtown core grew during the first quarter of 2026. Around 34% of Seattle’s commercial business district sits vacant, a figure that reflects years of tech downsizing and shifting workplace patterns. Amazon alone has shed more than 1 million square feet of office space in the city since 2020, including a full departure from the West 8th tower near its Denny Triangle headquarters.
The tower is now starting to fill back up. Last year, San Francisco-based software company Databricks leased 42,000 square feet there. More recently, General Motors took a similar amount of space to establish a tech hub, and financial technology company SoFi followed with 33,000 square feet.
This post was based on information found on The Seattle Times.
Photo courtesy of Dexter Yard.
