Atlassian signs five year lease in Seattle

Some tech companies still believe in the office. 

Atlassian, an Australian software company, signed a 64-month lease for 15,000-square-feet of space in Skyline Tower in Bellevue, across the lake from downtown Seattle, according to a press release.

“As a remote-first, Team Anywhere company, we believe you can work from home, at a cafe, at the beach, or at the office,” Scott Farquhar, Atlassian co-founder and co-CEO. “[B]y bringing teams intentionally together, our data shows it boosts team connection and productivity that lasts up to five months. Our new office in Seattle, paired with additional coworking community options, ensures Atlassians get to choose how they work, connect and collaborate every day.”

The company chose Skyline Tower for its proximity to public transit and ability to customize space to meet its needs, as well as the building’s on-site management, according to a release.

It’s a relatively small lease, with the space to accommodate 93 people, providing a  hub to serve the nearly 200 company employees that live in the Seattle metro area.

But it also runs counter to the prevailing narrative of tech companies running for the hills — or at least away from office buildings — or mandating that employees return to the office.

Leasing by tech companies fell drastically in the fourth quarter of 2022, down 57 percent across the country from the previous quarter, according to Savills data reported by Bisnow. The report noted 2.2 million square feet leased in the fourth quarter was barely a quarter of the 8.5 million square feet from a year earlier.

The industry spent more than a decade on top of office leasing. That lead changed in the second half of last year as companies’ economic headwinds set off waves of layoffs across major firms, reducing their need for office space.

Twitter, for example, has pulled out of leases in Boston, Singapore and other cities after Elon Musk took over the company.

Musk also gave a non-committal answer as to whether the company’s headquarters will remain in San Francisco.

Twitter leases 463,000 square feet across eight floors at 1355 Market Street, owned by San Francisco-based Shorenstein, according to a lawsuit the landlord filed in January over nonpayment of rent. 

Shorenstein said Twitter failed to pay $3.36 million in rent for the last month of December 2022 and a $3.49 million rent payment for January, the lawsuit said. Landlords of an Oakland skyscraper have also sued Twitter over nearly $1.3 million in unpaid rent.

Atlassian says it takes a different approach, looking at metrics around cost, occupancy, and purpose to help it make real estate decisions.

“For example, when we learned that 50 percent of people working out of our NYC office had flown in from out of town to spend in-person time with their teammates, we added a 65-person capacity Intentional Togetherness space that enables teams to better connect.” Annie Dean, Atlassian head of Team Anywhere, said in the release.