Pacific Northwest Region Sees Bump In Leasing Activity

The Puget Sound region had one of the most active office markets in the U.S. last year despite the overall slowdown in growth.

According to CBRE’s list of the 100 largest leases, Seattle came in at number three with three new leases that totaled 2.2 million square feet, just behind Washington D.C.’s 4.9 million square feet and Manhattan’s 6 million square feet.

The majority of the top two markets’ leases came from renewals, compared to Seattle’s completely new leases.

The Eastside has dominated large leases over the past few years. For instance, only 400,000 square feet was signed for Seattle spaces last year, compared to the 3.7 million square feet in 2017.

2020 marked the third year in a row that demand for new space on the Eastside surpassed Seattle and the surrounding region.

The companies who signed large leases included Amazon, who took up over 1 million square feet at West Main and 967,500 square feet at 555 Tower. The third lease totaled around 232,500 and CBRE notes it was by a separate technology firm.

In fact, of the 100 largest leases this year, the tech industry had the largest share of square footage at 24%.

While activity still remains uncertain, CBRE’s Pacific Northwest Senior Managing Director John R. Miller said that the firm anticipates activity to grow later in the year as vaccines become more widely available.