As downtown Seattle offices empty, city facing years of 'zombie' towers
Downtown Seattle may be sending strong “we’re back” vibes during its World Cup star turn. But downtown’s economic engine is still stuck on the sidelines.
Nearly 37% of the downtown Seattle office space is vacant — the most of any major U.S. downtown, according to real estate brokerage Cushman & Wakefield.
Iconic office towers like the 44-floor U.S. Bank Center, at Fifth Avenue and Pike Street, are nearly half empty and trading at fire-sale prices. Veteran developers like Martin Selig have defaulted on huge pieces of their office portfolios .
The city’s office economy is in free fall. Since 2020, downtown office properties have lost a staggering $15 billion, or 46%, of their value and are generating $128 million less in property taxes, according to King County assessor’s office data.
This is uncharted territory. After the Great Recession of 2008-10, when downtown office vacancy peaked at 21%, the market recovered in five years.
We’re past the five-year mark, and downtown still has so much empty space that even if demand returned to prepandemic levels, we’d need eight more years to refill it. And despite a recent flurry of office leasing in and around downtown , few market observers expect anything like a return to prepandemic demand.