Two and a half years after Amazon withdrew from plans for a huge new skyscraper in downtown Seattle, commercial and residential tenants are moving in Rainier Square, A swooping glass tower occupies a prominent position in the city skyline.
The 58-story, 850-foot-tall building occupies a central business district block along Union Street between Fourth Avenue and Fifth Avenue. It has 38 floors or 734,000 square feet of office space, all of which are now sub-leased by Amazon, and there are more than 20 floors of residential units, of which 189 are the tallest apartments in Seattle.
The height of this building is only six blocks south of the Columbia Tower, and aims to eliminate the uncertainty of whether workers will return to downtown office buildings after remote work caused by the pandemic. Concerns about crime and the uninhabited population on the streets below were exchanged for hope that Seattle’s rebound could be realized in this so-called “vertical community.”
During a recent visit to the residences in Rainier Square, GeekWire enjoyed sweeping views over other parts of Seattle, looking out over Puget Sound, Mount Rainier and other places from various apartments, with prices ranging from US$3,000 per month. Floor, one bedroom of 720 square feet, one of the four 3,000 square feet penthouses is $25,000 per month.
Are people ready to live in this place at this time?
“We think so,” said Holly Gardner, president of the Shuster Group, which represents the owners of the Wright Runstad & Company residential development team. “I think that despite all the challenges we face, Seattle has a good history of rebounding in overcoming these challenges. We firmly believe that we will do this again.”
So far, it is working for the unique home seeker in this city.
Rainier Square opened its doors to The Residences in late June, and their occupancy rate is over 40% and the occupancy rate is over 30%. Two of the four penthouses on the 58th floor have attracted much attention. The building is unique in Seattle because it offers apartment rentals for up to 20 years, which attracts buyers from cities such as New York and Chicago and elsewhere.
Gardner said: “Our home started where the other homes in Seattle ended.” “There are no residential buildings over 40 floors.”
Gardner also believes that it is close to downtown attractions such as civics, arts, and entertainment. But the building itself provides plenty of reasons not to go far. There are free facilities upstairs, such as business and entertainment spaces, including private key rooms, meeting rooms, maker spaces, gyms, libraries, full swing golf simulators, and indoor barbecues. Parties and so on.
At the bottom of the tower, there is a PCC community market and more retail stores.
“You really don’t have to leave, it’s really a vertical community,” Gardner said, adding that this lifestyle attracts a combination of retirees, senior managers and business owners, who chose a larger, Higher-priced units, and workers with technology from Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook and other places have been robbing low-cost apartments.
The 40-story Sky Lobby is 550 feet above the street, with glass walls from the floor to the 20-foot ceiling. On the 59th floor, above the penthouse, there are no windows and everything is given to the dog. There is a pet play area, a private grooming station and a piece of turf that is changed every few weeks so that the dog can sniff and use the real grass high in the sky .
Amazon’s change of heart
The tech giant is six blocks from Amazon’s main headquarters building, and it often appears on the streets around Rainier Square. Prime delivery vans run their routes, and Amazon Go convenience stores will be opened on the Fourth Avenue block. What is missing are the thousands of employees of this tech giant who could have filled the commercial space of skyscrapers.
Some of these corporate and technical employees may eventually work in downtown Bellevue, as you can see from the upper floors of Rainier Square to the east.
Why Amazon wants to bail a new building in a city that already has more than 50,000 employees can be traced back to the hostility triggered by its own growth a few years ago. After a dispute with the Seattle City Council over the company’s impact on the community and the city’s efforts to impose new taxes on large corporations, the company decided to withdraw from Rainier Square and place 25,000 employees in Bellevue.
Amazon now employs more than 4,000 employees in Bellevue because the company leased more space and showcased more skyscraper plans for the city, which some call the real “HQ2”. Amazon is also adding space and staff in Redmond, Washington, where more than 500 employees are employed to support Amazon Web Services and its broadband satellite project Kuiper Project.
Amazon said that approximately 30% of the available office space in Rainier Square has been sublet.Seattle Commercial Real Estate Agency Jones Lang LaSalle Says on its website 526,000 square feet is still available. This figure accounts for approximately 28% of the total available A-level sublease space in the city’s central business district.
According to an Amazon report in April, so far, Amazon and Rainier Square have attracted subletters including Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Royal Bank of Canada Wealth Management and law firm Schroeter Goldmark Bender. Puget Sound Business Magazine. Bank of America is the largest sub-tenant, occupying 116,000 square feet.
Amazon said it will continue to engage with potential sub-tenants.
The company will not comment on any situations where it may wish to place its employees in the building. Moreover, now that Rainier Square has been completed and used as a luxury residential and office property to attract people’s attention, Amazon declined to say whether it has any regrets about the exit.
“This is a beautiful statement tower,” said Gardner of the Schuster Group. “I think they can always change their minds.”