Amazon To Resume Build-out of Bellevue, Wash., Office Tower Space

Amazon's new office tower during construction in Bellevue, Wash., in July, 2022.

Photo, slightly cropped: Xnatedawgx, via Wikimedia Commons under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Amazon will resume the build-out of the upper 22 floors in an office tower in Bellevue, Wash., where it had paused work 21 months ago. Turner Construction Co. has been the construction manager for the structure, known as 555 Tower, but referred to by Amazon as "Sonic."

The big online retailer in December had announced that 1,000 employees were already at work in the lower 19 floors of the building.

The company said it is continuing construction on the remaining floors and "bringing online an additional 500,000 sq ft of collaborative workspace" that will allow the employee total in the building to go to 4,500.

When Amazon decided to hold off on finishing work on the top floors in 2022, it was described as part of the uncertainty over hybrid work arrangements and return-to-office work in the technology sector. A slower-than-expected post-pandemic return to offices and higher interest rates have plagued many office building developers and their lenders in the last year.

Amazon had originally planned to occupy five towers in downtown Bellevue when it announced the delay. Amazon has already leased three Bellevue buildings from developer Vulcan Real Estate, which also developed 555 Tower.

The status of another big planned Amazon construction project, the HQ2 development in Arlington, Va., remains uncertain. In March 2023, the company announced an indefinite delay to the start of the program’s 2.8-million-sq-ft second phase, known as PenPlace. The 2-million-sq-ft phase one, called Metropolitan Park, opened last May.

Rachael Lighty, an Amazon spokesperson, said the company has no updates on the project's timing, "however, our long-term intention and commitment remains unchanged" to Arlington and the Washington D.C. region.

Amazon has ample space at Met Park's first phase, which can accommodate 14,000 employees, and the company's second headquarters "has always been a multiyear project."

Deputy Editor Richard Korman helps run ENR's business and legal news and investigations, selects ENR's commentary and oversees editorial content on ENR.com. In 2023 the American Society of Business Publication Editors awarded Richard the Stephen Barr Award, the highest honor for a single feature story or investigation, for his story on the aftermath of a terrible auto crash in Kentucky in 2019, and in 2015 the American Business Media awarded him the Timothy White Award for investigations of surety fraud and workplace bullying. A member of Investigative Reporters and Editors, Richard has been a fellow on drone safety with the McGraw Center for Business Journalism at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY. Richard's freelance writing has appeared in the Seattle Times, the New York Times, Business Week and the websites of The Atlantic and Salon.com. He admires construction projects that finish on time and budget, compensate all team members fairly and record zero fatalities or serious injuries.