As downtown Seattle offices empty, city facing years of 'zombie' towers
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Re: As downtown Seattle offices empty, city facing years of 'zombie' towers
#2Back in 2019, I was amazed to learn just how many buildings in Seattle's downtown were Amazon offices. IIRC, it was dozens of buildings, some entirely owned by Amazon, some WeWork leases, etc. Downtown isn't very big, so that's a huge presence.
It was also fun to check out the company-city that is Redmond, not far away.
Seattle's a great city, and it's got great tech presence. I'm optimistic for its recovery.
Re: As downtown Seattle offices empty, city facing years of 'zombie' towers
#3[dead]
Re: As downtown Seattle offices empty, city facing years of 'zombie' towers
#4Back in 2019, I was amazed to learn just how many buildings in Seattle's downtown were Amazon offices. IIRC, it was dozens of buildings, some entirely owned by Amazon, some WeWork leases, etc. Downtown isn't very big, so that's a huge presence. It was also fun to check out the company-city that is Redmond, not far away. Seattle's a great city, and it's got great tech presence. I'm optimistic for its recovery.
owned by amazon ..
now where should data centers be constructed, rather than arable farmland?
Re: As downtown Seattle offices empty, city facing years of 'zombie' towers
#5I know that commercial and residential building codes are different, but you would think converting them to residential units would fix this..
Re: As downtown Seattle offices empty, city facing years of 'zombie' towers
#6Zoning and other regulations getting the way of it being used. The city "just" needs to incentivize it getting used, and someone's gotta come to terms with losing money.
Re: As downtown Seattle offices empty, city facing years of 'zombie' towers
#7I know that commercial and residential building codes are different, but you would think converting them to residential units would fix this..
The article goes into this:
> The city of Seattle estimates that, with aggressive incentives, conversions could generate up to 6,000 housing units over the next seven years. At a rough approximation, that would use around a fifth of the city’s present office surplus.
> But “potential” is doing a lot of work here.
> Newer, larger office buildings, like the U.S. Bank Center, are hugely impractical for conversion, thanks to massive floor plates, centralized plumbing and other utilities and a host of other constraints.
> The preferred candidates are typically smaller, older buildings, especially those with C- or E-shaped floor layouts, which make it easier to create smaller units with adequate windows.
> But these buildings can be prohibitively costly to bring up to seismic and energy building codes, said Jen Pasquier, a Seattle developer who wants to convert the 10-story Liggett Building, at Fourth and Pike, into 93 apartments.
Re: As downtown Seattle offices empty, city facing years of 'zombie' towers
#8I know that commercial and residential building codes are different, but you would think converting them to residential units would fix this..
It's not easy, but some people are trying it! https://www.npr.org/2026/02/21/g-s1-110595/from-cubicles-to-...
Re: As downtown Seattle offices empty, city facing years of 'zombie' towers
#9I know that commercial and residential building codes are different, but you would think converting them to residential units would fix this..
Apparently it's really expensive to convert to meet reasonably sane residential standards.
Add in required shrubbery, section 8 housing set-asides, rent control, etc., it becomes unattractive -- especially if the jobs have moved to business friendly suburbs
Re: As downtown Seattle offices empty, city facing years of 'zombie' towers
#10New York City: Hold my Negroni aperitivo. I have faith in the Big Apple administration's ability to become a leader on this metric.