As tech companies adopt permanent hybrid work policies, many are reassessing their existing real estate footprint and future plans. The Seattle area represents Meta’s second-largest engineering hub behind its Menlo Park headquarters. Microsoft, meanwhile, will not be renewing its lease at a 561,494 square-foot space in downtown Bellevue, Wash., according to a report Friday from The Puget Sound Business Journal.
Amazon in July said it would pause construction on five towers in Bellevue, citing ongoing uncertainty about the impact of hybrid work on its office designs. Office building attendance in downtown Seattle this past November increased year-over-year from 15-20% to 35-60%, according to the CBRE report, as more companies establish in-office mandates.
Meta and Microsoft are both giving up office space in the Seattle region amid the shift to hybrid work and broader tech downturn. Facebook parent Meta is subleasing its 6-story space at the Arbor Blocks 333 building near downtown Seattle, as well as Block 6, a 325,000 square-foot space at the Spring District complex in Bellevue, Wash., east of Seattle.
In October, Meta opened new offices at the Spring District, where it has several buildings. Since first establishing an outpost in Seattle back in 2010, Meta has steadily grown in the region, where it employs nearly 8,000 people.
The overall vacancy rates across the region continue to increase from around 16% at this time last year to above 18%. Only a “trickle” of tech tenants signed new leases downtown in Q4. Meta’s stock is down nearly 60% over the past year and the company announced in November that it would lay off 13% of its workforce, or more than 11,000 people. More than 700 people in the Seattle region were impacted. Meta said it planned to reduce its real estate footprint. On top of that it has embraced remote work.
