Seattle’s coworking market is experiencing a huge boom, with established brands like WeWork and local operators fueling what is now the second-fastest growth of flexible office space in the nation.
According to a report from CBRE, over 1 million square feet of flexible office space has come online in the Seattle area over the past year, a 67% annual increase.
Now, Seattle has a total of 2.6 million square feet of flex space as of the second quarter, ranking it the 10th largest market in the U.S.
“Tightening market conditions in Seattle and Bellevue’s downtown core are complicating expansion plans and making the flexibility of shorter-term leases more attractive to office tenants, especially those seeking large blocks of space,” said Colin Yasukochi, CBRE’s senior director of research and analysis. “This trend will likely continue as tech companies further expand in Puget Sound to take advantage of the high-quality labor pool.”
WeWork leads operators in the city in square footage, but IWG-owned coworking firm Spaces takes up 169,000 square feet. The report also found that Spaces experienced faster growth in the last 12 months than WeWork did, although they have a much smaller footprint than the coworking giant.
CBRE’s baseline scenario sees the flexible office space industry growing to represent 13% of U.S. office stock by 2030.
