May 2, 2023

Google's latest Kirkland office project looks to be done

Photo by Brian Miller [enlarge]

Looking west from Sixth, Eastrail and Feriton Spur Park are on the far side of the building.

SRM Development began work in mid-2020 on Google's Building E, at 509 Sixth St. S. in Kirkland , where SRM previously developed the prior two phases of that campus. It straddles the city's Feriton Spur Park, which opened its large expansion along Eastrail last summer. Google and SRM also contributed to that effort.

Now the two-story, 135,000-square-foot office and research building appears to be open as well. The signage is up, and there's office furniture inside. No workers were visible this past weekend, but that was on a sunny Saturday morning. A few cars were in the garage. As with most tech companies affected by the pandemic, Google continues to allow work-from-home, though that balance is gradually shifting.

The company's press representative didn't respond specifically to a DJC query before deadline.

The Building E team was led by architect DLR Group and builder Foushee. The project didn't go through regular design review, so there's never been a complete talent roster. Names associated with the project include Tamarack Grove Engineering; Smith Fire Systems; ArchEcology, LEED consultant; Image Mill, signage; Ramsay Signs, signage; Green Lake Engineering, civil; and DCI Engineers, structural.

Building E adds to Google's prior 400,000 square feet in four existing buildings (depending on how you count them), all connected by pedestrian bridges above the trail and park. The new building is targeting LEED Gold certification.

SRM says on its project website, now dormant, that the shell and core were completed last year. Recent city permit records have been for interiors work and, in March, the signage.

Building E replaced the old Kirkland Commerce Center. That industrial triangle, with nearly 3 acres, never changed hands. Rather, the prior ownership, including the Alhadeff family, joined a new SRM-related LLC in 2020, prior to construction.

The entire campus spans about 15 acres between the Moss Bay and Everest neighborhoods. SRM owns all the land.

Meanwhile, Google's other big Eastside hub is Kirkland Urban. There it's an owner (except for the apartments), not a tenant. It has the north and central office buildings completed, the south building nearly done and a fourth (east) in the planning stages.

If the latter proceeds, that would yield some 830,000 square feet, excluding the retail.

And mystery still swirls around the 10-acre Lee Johnson Chevrolet property in Rose Hill, just east of Interstate 405. There, five Google buildings with up to 1.5 million square feet could house around 7,000 office workers and staff. The city is still weighing an upzone for what it calls the Northeast 85th Street Station area.

Worldwide, Google announced in January a roughly 6% reduction of its headcount, or about 12,000 workers. Those cuts will vary by region and business line within Google/Alphabet. The company also has a major hub in South Lake Union. At the end of last year, it had over 7,000 workers in our area.