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Pokémon to leave Lincoln Square after leasing 374K sf in Bellevue

Game-card company to vacate 155K sf when it consolidates offices at The Eight

Pokémon to Exit Lincoln Square With Move to Bellevue

A photo illustration of Pokemon Company International CEO Kenji Okubo along with Lincoln Square North at 700 Bellevue Way Northeast (left) and The Eight at 10666 Northeast 8th Street in Bellevue (Getty, Skanska USA, Kemper Development)

Pokémon Company International will give up 155,000 square feet of offices in Lincoln Square after taking up 16 floors next year at a new tower in Downtown Bellevue.

The unit of Pokémon, based in Tokyo, will consolidate from two buildings in Lincoln Square when it moves into 374,000 square feet at The Eight, now under construction at 10666 NE 8th Street, the Puget Sound Business Journal reported, citing a report from the Broderick Group.

The entertainment and card-game company will pull up stakes from Lincoln Square South and Lincoln Square North at 500 and 700 Bellevue Way NE, owned by Kemper Development, based in the city.

The deal in January to occupy nearly three-fourths of the offices at Skanska’s 25-story tower a couple of blocks away was the largest lease on the Eastside last quarter. The 16-year lease has  two optional renewal periods of five years each, according to a memorandum.

Financial terms of the lease were not disclosed.

The firm will take up 16 floors and 152,3009 square feet of parking at the tower developed by New York-based Skanska USA Commercial Development, a subsidiary of Skanska, based in Sweden. The curving glass tower is expected to finish construction this spring. Pokemon is expected to occupy 72 percent of its offices and parking in January.

The Eight, a LEED Gold building rising at 8th Street and 108th Avenue, will contain 540,000 square feet of offices and 10,000 square feet of ground-floor shops and restaurants, according to its website.

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Pokémon, serving as the building’s anchor tenant, represents the largest office lease by Skanska USA, according to the Business Journal.

A lease memorandum shows that Pokemon has dibs on other spaces in the tower. The company has the right of first offer for the tower’s remaining unleased space, located on floors three through nine.

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Pokémon, in Bellevue for two decades, has grown to more than 900 local employees, a nearly 500 percent increase in 10 years. 

The office market in Bellevue has hit headwinds in the past two years after Microsoft said it would exit as much as 2.7 million square feet as the tech firm consolidates to its newly expanded campus in Redmond. 

TikTok is poised to lease more than 132,000 square feet of offices in Downtown Bellevue, doubling down on its e-commerce hub in space vacated by Microsoft. 

— Dana Bartholomew

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Pokémon Company International