Amazon's Master Development Plan approved for Bellevue towers

In January, the City of Bellevue issued Master Development Plan approval as well as approval for Phase 2 of Amazon's Bellevue 600 mixed-use office project.  The project consists of two towers, one of which is already under construction.  Phase 1 (the north tower), is a  43-story building that began construction in 2021, and will include 885,000 square feet of office space, 121,000 square feet of amenities, and 14,000 square feet of retail space.  Amenity plans include a meeting center, commons space, and a daycare center.  

Phase 2 (the south tower) will be 31 Stories, and contain 764,400 square feet of office, and 21,230 square feet of retail.  The second tower will feature an 8,000-square-foot retail and exhibition space on the ground floor. According to Amazon, the space will provide public access to new art installations and a locally operated coffee bar.  

A six-level below-grade parking garage serving both towers is expected to have 1,815 stalls.  As noted in the Puget Sound Business Journal, the garage contains less than the 2.0 stalls per 1,000 square feet required by city code (it contains 1.28 per 1,000 square feet), based on a parking demand study indicating that employees are likely to use transit to get to work. The project sits just north of the existing Bellevue Downtown transit center and the new Link light-rail station scheduled to open in 2023. There will be 1,000 on-site bike storage stalls as well.

As reported in Downtown Bellevue Network, occupancy for Phase 1 is expected to take place in 2024, while occupancy for Phase 2 is slated to take place in 2025. The towers, at ~600 feet tall, are expected to be amongst the tallest in Bellevue.  The buildings will be fully electric and will use gray water to reduce water use as part of LEED Gold and Salmon Safe certifications.

The 3.5-acre site is located at 600 108th Avenue NE, on the east half of the Bellevue Corporate Plaza property. Amazon purchased Bellevue Corporate Plaza in April 2019 for $194.9 million.  Amazon has announced that it will add a total of 25,000 jobs in Bellevue, driving a wave of new development in the city's downtown core.  The Bellevue 600 project will accommodate 7,000 employees.

The project team includes Seneca Group (Development), Sellen Construction, NBBJ (architect), Gustafson Guthrie Nichol (landscape architect), Magnusson Klemencic (structural engineering), McKinstry (mechanical and plumbing design and energy modeling) and Stantec (electrical engineering).