By james art 
Amazon is leaving its Denny Triangle office building, reducing its presence in Seattle as it expands in Bellevue. The company confirmed to the Puget Sound Business Journal and Seattle Times last week that it has let its lease expire at the Metropolitan Park North building, 1220 Howell Street, and plans to vacate the premises this month.
Amazon has been in the building since 2013. His lease runs through February 2024, according to King County records.
Approximately 800 employees from Met Park North were reassigned to other facilities at Amazon’s Puget Sound headquarters, although the company did not specify their new locations. Amazon considers Seattle, Bellevue and Redmond part of its headquarters in the Puget Sound region, a shift cemented several years ago when it began developing a cluster of office buildings in downtown Bellevue to house 25,000 employees.
Amazon reports: Quarterly earnings rise, beats revenue estimates as it invests in AI
Amazon has focused its employee growth in Bellevue, increasing the number of employees there by about 2,000 in the past seven months, reaching 14,000 by the end of October. In contrast, the number of employees in Seattle remains at 50,000 employees, down from 55,000 in 2022. and 2023, due in part to layoffs and the move to Bellevue.
Amazon also had 2,000 employees in Redmond as of late October.
The decision to expire the lease comes as Amazon prepares to require five days a week in the office from January. As part of that mandate, Amazon will reintroduce designated desks at its Puget Sound-area headquarters and HQ2 in Arlington, Va., CEO Andy Jassy told employees.
The company’s global real estate and facilities team is working on a desk placement plan, but employees are still expected to be in the office five days a week, even if their assigned workspace isn’t ready until Jan. 2, according to an FAQ document shared with The Seattle Times.
Jason Rantz: Starbucks joins Amazon in reasonable threat to fire selfish employees who won’t return to work
Meanwhile, another Amazon lease in Seattle’s South Lake Union neighborhood has reached its original expiration date, but the company has no plans to vacate the building. Amazon signed a 10-year lease for 26,000 square feet of office space in the historic Supply Laundry building in May 2014, with options for two five-year extensions. The building, 477 Yale Ave. N, was originally built in 1904. as a commercial laundry and now includes apartments, shops and office space.
Real estate investment firm Timberlane Partners bought the Supply Laundry office building and Stack House apartments in June for $115 million. Previously owned by JPMorgan Chase, which acquired it from Vulcan Real Estate in 2015, the property features a chimney that pays homage to its roots.
The Broderick Group, a commercial real estate firm in Seattle and Bellevue, has announced for lease 147,000 square feet of office space in the Met Park North building, available December 1.
Bill Cacharaba is the content editor at MyNorthwest. You can read his stories here. Follow Bill on X, formerly known as Twitter, here and email him here.