The Freeman family is exploring a sale of The Bellevue Collection, the sprawling 5.5 million-square-foot complex of shopping centers, hotels, office towers and apartments that has anchored downtown Bellevue for 80 years. Kemper Development Company plans to select a broker soon to begin the sale process, though no buyer has been identified yet.
The announcement covers a property portfolio that includes Bellevue Square, Lincoln Square North, Lincoln Square South and Bellevue Place, according to KOMO News. The complex houses more than 200 stores, two movie theaters, three office towers, luxury apartments, and an array of restaurants and entertainment venues, all spread across a 51-acre contiguous footprint in downtown Bellevue with roughly 12,500 free retail parking spaces, as reported by MyNorthwest.
A Hospitality Empire Built Into the Package
The Bellevue Collection also includes three major hotels totaling 1,100 guest rooms, led by the 732-room Hyatt Regency Bellevue — the largest hotel in downtown Bellevue — alongside The Westin Bellevue and W Bellevue, per the Downtown Bellevue Network. Elevated sky bridges connect the Hyatt Regency directly to Bellevue Square and Lincoln Square, giving guests climate-controlled access across the complex, the outlet notes. Any potential buyer would inherit that entire hospitality footprint along with the retail and office space.
The company began 80 years ago with the opening of Bellevue Shopping Square in 1946, a 16-store outdoor shopping center, according to KOMO. Kemper Freeman took over the company from his father in the mid-1970s and led the redevelopment of Bellevue Square beginning in the 1980s, growing it into what MyNorthwest describes as one of the largest privately held downtown developments in the Pacific Northwest. Freeman retired last year, and his retirement was among several factors in the decision to explore a sale, the station reports.
Executive Says New Owner Must Match Family's Community Ties
Jim Melby, CEO of Kemper Development Company, said the intended buyer should share the Freeman family's regard for the surrounding community and have the capability to further enhance the property, according to KOMO's reporting. The Bellevue Collection is credited with creating thousands of jobs and generating millions of dollars in tax benefits for the city, and it has supported arts, health, education and family causes across the region, the station notes. The company says the complex will continue to operate normally during the sale process, and community events and cultural programming — including the nightly Snowflake Lane holiday parade — will continue as planned through 2026.
Snowflake Lane began 20 years ago as a small sidewalk performance on Bellevue Way and now draws nearly 400,000 spectators each season between Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve, according to the Bellevue Downtown Association. Kemper Freeman modeled the free holiday tradition after Fifth Avenue in New York and Chicago's Magnificent Mile, the association notes. The family has also funneled significant giving into Eastside nonprofits: through 20 years of Fashion Week and Posh Party Trend Show events, the Freemans donated 100% of ticket sales, generating $1.5 million for local human services charities including Bellevue LifeSpring, which provides food, clothing and emergency aid to low-income children in Bellevue public schools.
Entitled Expansion Rights Could Sweeten the Deal
Kemper Development Company has previously submitted plans to the City of Bellevue for a project known as The Bellevue, a proposed $1 billion, 1.8 million-square-foot expansion featuring four towers with residential, hotel, office and retail space south of Bellevue Square, according to Kemper Development Company. That footprint sits on parking lots immediately south of the Macy's department store anchor. A buyer of The Bellevue Collection would potentially inherit those pre-planned entitlement rights alongside the existing complex.
The stakes for the city are considerable. Downtown Bellevue generates over $1 billion in annual taxable retail sales and, despite covering under 2% of the city's total land area, downtown commercial activity yields nearly one-third of Bellevue's municipal tax revenue, according to the Bellevue Downtown Association. Internal market research by Kemper Development Company has found that 10% to 20% of the complex's annual visitors are regional or national travelers making multi-day shopping and dining trips, per the Bellevue Reporter.
The property's origins reach back further than the Freeman family's ownership tenure. As Hoodline previously reported, family patriarch Miller Freeman co-founded the Anti-Japanese League of Washington in 1916 to push for alien land laws, and WWII incarceration later cleared local Japanese-owned farmland where Bellevue Square opened in 1946. Japanese American families had produced roughly 90% of Bellevue's agricultural output before that forced removal.
Freeman has also left a mark on the city's cultural institutions beyond retail. He co-chaired the $25 million capital campaign that constructed the Bellevue Arts Museum and previously donated land valued at $8 million for a proposed regional performing arts center, according to Kemper Development Company. For now, Kemper Development Company has not named a timeline for selecting a broker or identified prospective buyers, leaving the future ownership of one of the region's largest private commercial developments an open question.
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