Commercial real estate—and its economic trajectory—was the topic of a recent forum at the REALTORS® Legislation Meetings & Trade Expo, and it made one thing clear: growth will continue in the marketplace. As the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) outlines, a panel led by Dr. Lawrence Yun, chief economist of NAR, discussed “the economic forces shaping commercial real estate markets and how high-tech company expansions, such as Amazon, will have a significant effect on regions across the country.”
Read MoreWhile an overstock in apartment supply might have signaled that the “apartment boom” in Seattle is over, Puget Sound Business Journal says it isn’t “over just yet.” This proclamation comes amidst an announcement from Bosa Properties that they will move forward with plans for a 41-story apartment tower at 2014 Fairview Avenue, located close to the Amazon headquarters at South Lake Union.
Read MoreIn February 2019, Onni Group made their first real estate purchase on the Eastside, with the acquisition of a four-acre site in downtown Bellevue—currently home to a church and Barnes & Noble store—for $116 million. On Thursday, March 14th, the company provided the first set of publicly available images for a large-scale mixed-use project it plans for the area, which, according to Puget Sound Business Journal, will comprise “three 600-foot-tall towers totaling 1,289 residences, 896,000 square feet of office space, 317 hotel suites and 2,318 underground parking stalls.”
Read MoreAs Mike Rosenberg of Seattle Times reports, “it’s not just housing prices: Seattle is not the bargain it used to be for companies, either.” Though the Emerald City was historically a bargain compared to other larger cities, “the city’s recent boom driven by Amazon and other tech companies has propelled Seattle up the ranks of the nation’s most expensive places to rent an office, passing Chicago and Los Angeles just in the last three years.” During the three year period, Seattle office rents increased a staggering 31 percent, “about 2 ½ times faster than the national average.”
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