Amazon Will Be Sole Tenant in Seattle Office Tower Opening 2020

(Bloomberg) -- Amazon.com Inc. has leased all of the office space in a $570 million Seattle skyscraper scheduled to open in 2020 in the heart of downtown, continuing its local expansion as it looks for a second headquarters in North America.

The Seattle-based retailer and web-services behemoth agreed to rent 722,000 square feet (67,100 square meters) of the 1.17 million-square-foot Rainier Square building, developer Wright Runstad & Co. said Tuesday. Terms weren't disclosed.

“They're still growing in Seattle,” said Greg Johnson, president of Wright Runstad, noting the space can house more than 4,000 workers. Most of the equity for the project is being put up by a pension client of JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s asset-management arm, which will own the property through a partnership with Wright Runstad.

The 58-story Rainier Square tower is set to be the city's second-tallest, behind Columbia Center. Plans call for 200 luxury apartments on top of the offices, and retail space that will include an Equinox fitness club and organic food market. The project's second phase will be a hotel, slated to begin construction late next year in a partnership with New York-based Related Cos.

The site used to be a low-rise retail complex that lost its luster as fashions changed and online shopping took hold. Demolition of the existing structures has begun. The land under the development is owned by the University of Washington, which granted Wright Runstad an 80-year ground lease in 2014.

To contact the reporter on this story: Hui-yong Yu in Seattle at hyu@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Daniel Taub at dtaub@bloomberg.net, Christine Maurus, Alan Mirabella