A presentation of the 43-story Amazon Tower, Bellevue 600 project, in Bellevue, Washington.
Amazon
Amazon It is resuming construction on a 42-story office tower in the Seattle suburb of Bellevue, after 22 floors of the building have remained unfinished since 2022, the company said Thursday.
The company temporarily halted work in 2022 on five towers in the Bellevue area, along with new offices in Virginia and Nashville, citing uncertainty about the pandemic's impact on office work. At the time, CEO Andy Jassy said Amazon was embracing hybrid and remote work. Since then, the company has required its employees to be at their offices at least three days a week.
In December, Amazon opened the first half of a 42-story office tower in Bellevue, called Sonic, and moved about 1,000 employees into the building.
“Once completed later this year, Sonic will provide space for more than 4,500 employees in total,” the company said.
Amazon has continued to secure office space outside Seattle, where it is headquartered. Its Seattle campus now spans tens of millions of square feet across more than 40 office buildings. Amazon said it does not expect to increase its presence in the city.
The company said it plans to hire 25,000 employees in the Bellevue area. In addition to the Sonic Tower, other buildings include Dynamo, which opened last February and can accommodate 1,500 employees, as well as a 43-story tower referred to as the “Bellevue 600” project. The tower, the largest ever, will include approximately one million square feet of office space.
While the company resumes work in Bellevue, some of Amazon's other office projects remain on hold. Last March, Amazon said it would temporarily halt construction on the second phase of its sprawling campus in Northern Virginia, called HQ2. The second phase, referred to as PenPlace, includes three 22-story office buildings, retail space and a 350-foot tower called “The Helix.” The first phase of HQ2 opened last year.
