OpenAI Grabs More Bellevue Office Space

OpenAI is more than quadrupling its office space in the Seattle area.

The Sam Altman-led artificial intelligence giant has finalized a deal to expand its offices at City Center Plaza in downtown Bellevue by approximately 223,130 square feet, CoStar reported, citing sources familiar with the matter. Last year, the ChatGPT maker made its Puget Sound region debut with 69,000 square feet across two floors at the tower, the Puget Sound Business Journal reported.

Under the new deal, OpenAI will grab an additional nine floors in the 574,970-square-foot building. The company will serve as the tower’s anchor tenant, occupying 11 of the building’s 26 stories. The structure at 555 110th Avenue Northeast was previously occupied entirely by Microsoft until 2022 when the tech company began cutting its real estate holdings and consolidating its operations around its expanded headquarters to the northeast in Redmond.

As OpenAI moves toward a possible initial public offering by the end of this year, the AI juggernaut has been growing its presence along the West Coast and around the world.

In 2023, the company subleased approximately 500,000 square feet from Uber for its headquarters in San Francisco’s Mission Bay neighborhood. Less than a year later, the firm leased 315,000 square feet nearby at 550 Terry A. Francois Boulevard. Now, OpenAI is reportedly finalizing another deal to sublease up to 250,000 square feet from Dropbox at 1800 Owens Street and roughly 500,000 square feet in Mountain View.

Bellevue has emerged as a bright spot for leasing while the Puget Sound region grapples with high office availability rate, driven in part by tech companies like OpenAI moving in, according to CoStar. The vacancy rate in the area reached more than 23 percent last year, though that figure is expected to drop as more tenants lease newer offices in Bellevue. Offices in downtown Bellevue have some of the highest rents in Greater Seattle, often fetching rents 45 percent higher than the rest of the metro area, per CoStar.

— Chris Malone Méndez