Amazon-Leased Office Tower Lands $525 Million Refinancing

An Amazon-leased office tower in Bellevue scored a hefty refinancing loan two years after opening.

Seattle-based Schnitzer West and Boston-based the Baupost Group secured a $525 million refinancing package for the 25-story Artise building at 788 106th Avenue Northeast, the Puget Sound Business Journal reported. Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank issued the debt, which replaces a $520 million loan secured in September 2021.

The financing amounts to $859 per square foot.

Schnitzer West developed the tower, completed in January 2024, in a joint venture partnership with hedge fund Baupost. The building spans 611,000 square feet, including 7,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space that is still vacant.

The Artise is fully leased to Amazon, though the e-commerce giant has not moved into its space. The company stopped interior construction work in 2022 as it evaluated its office space but started work again in October, three years later.

Amazon plans to build out all 25 floors, according to plans filed with the City of Bellevue. The buildout is estimated to cost $80 million. King County’s assessed value of the property is $161.8 million.

Amazon has been shifting its Puget Sound operations from Seattle to Bellevue and Redmond as it looks to beef up its workforce in the Eastside cities from 15,000 currently to 25,000 in the coming years. Last fall, the company leased a 70,000-square-foot building in Redmond Town Center, taking up space vacated by AT&T at 7277 164th Avenue Northeast.

Besides the Artise, Amazon recently resumed work on three other office buildings that it left in shell condition for more than a year, resuming construction on Bellevue 600’s Tower 1, at 633 110th Avenue Northeast, and two towers in the three-building West Main complex at 117 106th Avenue Northeast, the outlet reported.

Amazon’s migration to Bellevue has included letting its leases in Seattle expire.

The Jeff Bezos-led e-commerce giant is not renewing its lease of the 251,000-square-foot 1915 Terry Avenue building in Seattle’s Denny Triangle neighborhood, planning to exit the space in May.

In 2024, the company gave up nearly 595,000 square feet in Seattle as various leases expired and more employees moved to Bellevue. That year, Amazon allowed its lease to expire at the Metropolitan Park North building at 1220 Howell Street, a block away from 1915 Terry Avenue. In 2023, it exited office towers at 2001 Eighth Avenue and 1800 Ninth Avenue.

— Chris Malone Méndez