March 13, 2017

Amazon takes Touchstone's Tilt49

Image by Colliers [enlarge]

Amazon employees will move into the 300,000-square-foot office tower early next year.

Amazon has leased all the office space in Tilt49, the 11-story, 300,000-square-foot office tower now being constructed at 1812 Boren Ave. in the Denny Triangle.

Colliers brokers Greg Inglin and Laura Ford represented developer Touchstone. An Amazon spokesman confirmed the lease.

Touchstone began planning Tilt49 before it bought the half-block site in 2014 for $17 million. Touchstone was subsequently acquired by Urban Renaissance Group.

Principal Real Estate Investors is a financial partner in the project, and Bank of the Ozarks is the lender.

Amazon employees will move in early next year.

They'll enjoy a 7,000-square-foot terrace on the ninth floor, electric car charging stations, bike room, shower and locker room, and other amenities. The Colliers listing for Tilt49 also describes knockout slab locations that can accommodate stairs between floors, as now seems likely.

This new Amazon lease, first reported Friday by GeekWire, adds to its estimated 7.3 million square feet in Seattle. That total figure was included in the Downtown Seattle Association's recent report on 2016 development activity.

The DSA projects that Amazon will add another 3.1 million square feet by 2019.

Tilt49 originally included two buildings: the 11-story office tower and a 41-story, 393-unit apartment tower, also under construction. In 2015, Touchstone sold the residential project to AMLI Residential and Mortenson Development. The new owners renamed the tower AMLI Arc and value it at $184 million.

The entire project broke ground in 2015 and is expected to finish this year. ZGF Architects designed both buildings in Tilt49, and Mortenson Construction is building them. Mortenson values the office tower at $85 million. A shared underground garage will have parking for 509 vehicles.

The half-block site for Tilt49 and AMLI Arc is on Boren between Stewart and Howell streets.