BELLEVUE, Wash. — The courtship between this city and one of the world’s biggest tech companies continued Thursday as the Bellevue Downtown Association presented John Schoettler, Amazon vice president of global real estate and facilities, with its “Placemaking Award” at an event marking the BDA’s 50th anniversary.
“With John’s leadership and guidance, Amazon has done truly remarkable things for Bellevue and for the region,” said Trinity Parker, the BDA board chair, citing the company’s plans to ultimately bring 25,000 employees to the city, along with its support and financial contributions to numerous civic and community projects.
Amazon accelerated its expansion in Bellevue after encountering strong political headwinds, including corporate tax initiatives, in its nearby hometown of Seattle.
The company in July 2022 paused construction of several of its Bellevue projects, while experimenting with different office designs to adapt to the new era of hybrid work. But even with that pause, the company says Bellevue will be the focus of much of its future growth in what it calls its Puget Sound headquarters region.
Approached by GeekWire at the event, Schoettler did not give a timeline for when construction on those paused buildings might resume. He pointed out that work has continued on one tower at the Bellevue 600 project, and said the company is focusing on testing different approaches in the spaces that have been built out.
“We want to do that first, and get it right,” he explained.
Amazon on Friday said it has opened its latest office building in Bellevue, dubbed Dynamo, and now has more than 11,000 employees working in the city. At 300,000 square feet, the new building includes room for more than 1,500 people working on the AWS Database, Machine Learning, AI, Compute, and Networking teams.
The company’s workforce in Bellevue is ultimately expected to equal the size of its future employee base in Arlington, Va., which landed the company’s second headquarters after its much-ballyhooed “HQ2” search in 2018.
Speaking during the event Thursday, after accepting the BDA award on behalf of the broader Amazon team, Schoettler described the company’s decision to expand in Bellevue as “very intentional.” He called the city an “incredible gem,” citing its talent pool, the natural beauty of its surroundings, and its business-friendly approach.
Amazon last year instituted a policy requiring employees to be in the office at least three days a week, which prompted a backlash from some employees, including a high-profile walkout from its Seattle headquarters.
Speaking on-stage at the event Thursday night with BDA CEO and President Patrick Bannon, the Amazon real estate chief said the new era of hybrid work has given the company an opportunity to conduct extensive research into how employees are working, collaborating, and inventing together when they go into the office.
“Yes, I think that there has been some positivity about work-from-home,” Schoettler said. However, he said, Amazon’s experience so far in returning to the office has shown that “we’re really better when we are together.”
Amazon’s real estate footprint has been changing in the process. The company’s leased office space at the end of 2023 was 29.7 million square feet in North America, down by about 1 million square feet from the year before, according to a regulatory filing last week, as reported by the Puget Sound Business Journal.
Office vacancy rates in Bellevue’s central business district rose to 10.9% as of the fourth quarter of 2023, from 3.6% in 2019, before the pandemic, according to a new report from the Broderick Group.
“Amazon’s approach to in-office work mandates and building out of its committed footprint will continue to have a massive impact on the health of the Bellevue office market,” the real estate firm said in the report.
Much of the night was focused on Bellevue’s history, with longtime civic and business leaders marveling at what feels like its overnight transformation into a modern metropolis. As part of the conversation on stage, Bannon asked Schoettler what he hopes the city will be like in 25 years, on the BDA’s 75th anniversary.
Schoettler described Bellevue as “absolutely amazing” today but said it could become a “complete utopia” in the future. The city, he said, can be a “destination for all people to come and to be together, to live in harmony with one another — where there’s arts and culture, and thriving business, and technology and innovation.”
