OpenAI is dramatically scaling up its Seattle-area footprint, locking in a big chunk of downtown Bellevue office space and turning its local hub into something far larger than the modest outpost it started with. The company is taking over former Microsoft floors in one of the Eastside’s biggest towers, adding another marquee name to an AI-fueled office rebound that local brokers say is breathing life back into premium buildings outside San Francisco.
How much space and where
Early permit filings showed OpenAI aiming to build out the 15th through 17th floors at City Center Plaza, roughly 69,000 square feet in total, as reported by Puget Sound Business Journal. Updated city documents and data later reflected a scaled-back plan, canceling work on the 15th floor and leaving the 16th and 17th floors with a combined footprint of about 49,000 square feet. Even at that size, it represents a substantial jump for the company’s Seattle-area hub, according to CoStar.
What OpenAI plans to build
Tenant-improvement plans call for an interconnecting stair between the two floors and a suite of employee-friendly perks, including a 140-seat cafeteria, game room, reading room, “tech bar,” and wellness center, alongside conference rooms and collaboration areas, per local reporting from Downtown Bellevue Network. It is a setup that fits neatly into a broader trend: AI firms growing beyond the Bay Area but opting for smaller, highly amenitized spaces instead of massive, bare-bones campuses.
Where City Center Plaza fits
City Center Plaza, at 555 110th Avenue NE, is a 26-story Class A tower owned by CommonWealth Partners and marketed by CBRE. The property listing pegs the building at roughly 583,000 square feet as ownership refreshes the asset for multiple tenants, according to CBRE. Sitting next to major transit and a short hop from Microsoft’s Redmond campus, the tower is an obvious candidate for AI and cloud companies that want Eastside engineering talent without sacrificing downtown-style amenities.
Why brokers are watching
Market watchers say the OpenAI deal helps refill space Microsoft left behind and underscores a clear flight to quality on the Eastside. Analytics from CoStar put downtown Bellevue’s office vacancy at about 14.6%, around half the rate in downtown Seattle. That gap has kept Bellevue among the stronger office submarkets in the Puget Sound region as tenants chase modern, amenity-heavy floors. The shift follows earlier Microsoft consolidation moves in the area, reported by The Seattle Times, that opened the door for new occupants.
OpenAI's local footprint and hiring
OpenAI formally revealed plans for a Seattle-area office in 2024 and already had a small team operating locally at that time, according to GeekWire. The Bellevue tenant-improvement filings show space for roughly 370 desks in the new build-out, a detail first reported by Puget Sound Business Journal, hinting that the company could scale up its local headcount quickly if hiring keeps pace with its real estate.
The project appears in city filings under the code name “Apollo” and shows tenant improvements moving ahead, although the records do not list a public occupancy date. Those details are summarized by Downtown Bellevue Network. For Bellevue, the lease is another data point in a growing pattern: AI players are increasingly driving demand for top-tier, amenity-rich space on the Eastside as landlords recast former single-tenant strongholds into multi-tenant hubs built to court the next wave of tech.
