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October 18, 2017

Amazon leases top 6 floors of 300 Pine

By BRIAN MILLER
Journal staff reporter

Rendering by CallisonRTKL [enlarge]
Each floor could hold about 500 workers. That could mean up to 3,000 Amazon employees in the old department store.

Amazon has leased the renovated upper floors of the Macy's building, at 300 Pine St.

Starwood Capital Group of Greenwich, Connecticut owns floors three through eight, and is currently renovating them with CallisonRTKL, Bayley and KPFF.

Starwood paid $115 million in two transactions, the most recent in September, to acquire the roughly 470,000 square feet.

Cincinnati-based Macy's continues to own and operate its store on the bottom two floors and basement, though the company has been struggling nationally and closing stores.

Colliers team of David Abbott, Greg Inglin and Laura Ford represented Starwood in leasing the space, now called 300 Pine. Amazon apparently represented itself in the lease negotiations. Colliers didn't answer DJC queries, and Starwood didn't immediately reply.

Geekwire first reported the lease Monday. Terms weren't announced.

Renovations of the full-block building are expected to be done next year. Starwood had originally targeted 2017 for completion, but that was before floors three and four were added, in deal that was announced in June.

In marketing materials for 300 Pine, Colliers estimates that each floor could accommodate about 500 workers. That could translate to up to 3,000 Amazon employees.

The Bon Marche building opened in 1929, and has been landmarked. It sits right on top of the transit tunnel.

The block is bounded by Pine and Stewart streets, and Third and Fourth avenues.

Floor plates are about 80,000 square feet, said to be the largest in the city. Ceiling heights are about 15 feet.

Amazon will have its own business lobby, at the corner of Third and Pine, and separate elevators.

Starwood has a long-term lease on Macy's parking garage on Third. There's also a large bike room at the lobby for about 100 bicycles.

The redesign by CallisonRTKL includes a large roof deck and penthouse, plus many amenities. 300 Pine's most dramatic features are two light shafts, or clerestories, that link and illuminate floors eight and seven. Also, 300 Pine was designed so that internal stairs can easily be added, potentially linking all six floors.

The renovation of 300 Pine to house Amazon marks a symbolic transition from brick-and-mortar retailers like Macy's to online shopping. The space is also roughly equidistant from Amazon's burgeoning presence in the Denny Triangle and Rainier Square, where Amazon is leasing all 722,000 square feet of office space in a new 58-story tower.

Rainier Square won't be ready for three years, but the two leases total about 1.2 million square feet. Current estimates of Amazon's near-term office footprint range between 12 million and 13 million square feet.

Kidder Mathews estimates that the company currently occupies about 9.6 million square feet, with leases in place for another 2.4 million in the pipeline. Those figures do not include Rainier Square and 300 Pine.

Referring to Amazon's plan to open its HQ2 in an undetermined second major American metropolis, KM wrote in its recent third-quarter office report, “In reality, it would be difficult for the region to accommodate a HQ2 level expansion, as the infrastructure of the Seattle CBD is already over-capacity, and Bellevue and Redmond just do not have sufficient land for that much office development.

“Fortunately, the loss of the next phase of Amazon's growth will be offset by the fact that the region has reached critical mass as a top tech location with a wide variety of symbiotic companies expanding their regional presence. Facebook, Google, Tableau, Wave and others have preleased more office space.”


 


Brian Miller can be reached by email at brian.miller@djc.com or by phone at (206) 219-6517.




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