Kemper Secures $238M Refi for Seattle-Area Tower

March 27, 2026

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The asset is fully leased and boasts TikTok as a major tenant.

Kemper Development Co. has obtained $238 million in refinancing for Lincoln Square North, a 25-story, 561,466-square-foot office tower in Bellevue, Wash. Blackstone and New York Life provided the loan.

The property was previously subject to a $220 million loan originated by TIAA in 2015, Yardi Matrix shows. The asset is currently 100 percent leased. From November 2023 through March 2025, the building accounted for a quarter of all office leasing activity in the Bellevue central business district, according to Newmark.

TikTok occupies seven floors in the tower, after expanding its presence by 150,000 square feet in June 2024. Microsoft previously leased 20 floors but relinquished most of its offices there in December 2023. Microsoft subsidiary LinkedIn is still the tenant of two floors.

The tower’s floorplates are 22,000 square feet, according to Yardi Matrix, and the building also includes three floors of retail space.

Built in 2007, Lincoln Square North is part of The Bellevue Collection, a mixed-use development that includes a mix of retail, office and hotel properties. The property is located at 700 Bellevue Way NE in Bellevue’s CBD. Downtown Seattle is within about 11 miles, while Seattle-Tacoma International Airport is within some 16 miles.

Newmark Co-President of Global Debt & Structured Finance Jonathan Firestone, Vice Chairman Blake Thompson and Associate Director Jack Condon arranged the financing for Kemper.

Seattle’s sluggish office market

Seattle’s unsteady office sector continued to lag behind other metros, with most of its metrics below other gateway markets as of August 2025, according to a Yardi Matrix report. The metro posted a vacancy rate of 27.2 percent, the highest figure among the largest U.S. cities at the time. Compared to the same month of 2024, Seattle’s vacancy rose by 2.3 percent.

The city’s office sector comprised 731,963 square feet of office space under construction as of August, according to Yardi Matrix, accounting for 0.5 percent of its total office stock. When also considering projects in the planning stages, Seattle’s pipeline accounted for 1.4 percent of its total inventory, a figure still below the 1.9 percent national threshold.

A recent major lease in the so-called Emerald City came in January, when JP Morgan Chase & Cos. added more than 40,000 square feet at 1301 Second Ave., an office tower owned by CommonWealth Partners in Seattle’s central business district. The firm now occupies 128,000 square feet across five floors in the 42-story building.