Part of Bellevue's Overlake 520 office campus may be trading cubicles for countertops. An investor is lining up a plan for 172 for-sale townhomes on an 8.6-acre slice of the Bel-Red neighborhood, a short walk from Microsoft's Redmond campus. The homes would be spread across roughly 33 low-rise buildings, putting it among the larger townhome projects in the corridor. If it moves ahead, the development would add a fresh for-sale option to a market now heavy on apartments and traditional single-family parcels.
Project at a glance
According to the Puget Sound Business Journal, the proposal calls for 172 townhomes in about 33 buildings on roughly 8.6 acres at the Overlake 520 site near 14335 NE 24th St. The units are described as for-sale townhomes rather than rentals, which would bring more ownership opportunities within walking distance of transit and major employers.
Site history and ownership
The property is part of the Overlake 520 office campus, a low-rise office complex on NE 24th Street, and commercial records list the parcel at about 8.6 acres with buildings dating to the mid-1980s. Listings on LoopNet show the site with a 1985 construction date.
Innovatus Capital Partners acquired Overlake 520 in 2020 and has managed the campus since, according to a company announcement. In outlining the deal, Innovatus highlighted the property’s proximity to Microsoft's nearby campus.
Why Bel-Red is primed for housing
Bel-Red and neighboring Overlake have been in the crosshairs for transit-oriented growth as Sound Transit’s East Link opened and Bellevue updated zoning to steer more housing toward light rail stations. The Urbanist has tracked thousands of homes built or permitted around the Bel-Red and Overlake stations, including clusters of townhomes alongside larger apartment projects.
Bellevue’s long-running Bel-Red rezone set the policy framework that makes denser development possible in this corridor, with the city council adopting the complete overhaul of the area’s zoning several years ago, according to Bellevue Reporter.
Next steps and city review
Even with the townhome concept now public, a preliminary check of Bellevue’s online permit databases did not show a recent residential land-use application for 14335 NE 24th St. as of this report. City records instead list a nonresidential alteration permit for the address from 2021 and do not yet reflect a formal conversion request.
Permit records indicate the site has seen recent commercial work. Turning the office campus into townhomes would trigger design review, environmental review where required, and a series of other city approvals before any demolition or homebuilding could begin.
What neighbors should expect
If the proposal advances, it would bring for-sale housing within walking distance of light rail and Microsoft jobs, and it would almost certainly revive familiar neighborhood debates over parking, open space, and who can actually afford to buy in. Newly built townhomes in the area have regularly traded above seven figures, and local coverage of Bel-Red growth has pointed to strong demand for ownership options alongside ongoing questions about how incentive zoning and design standards shape the number of affordable homes.
For now, the timeline for design review and permit filings has not been announced, so neighbors are left watching to see whether the office complex next door stays a workplace or slowly turns into someone else’s front door.
