NOAA Site Awaits Next Chapter; Facebook Eyes Growth

By Alex Girda, Associate Editor

For several years now, Seattle’s vibrant South Lake Union submarket has been the site of innovative projects that have drawn retail, high-tech and medical tenants, as well as a growing residential community. That poses an intriguing question: what’s next for one of the more offbeat properties to hit the market recently?

As reported by the Puget Sound Business Journal, the former site of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s operations center has been on the market for eight months. The property became available when NOAA moved from Seattle to Oregon last year.

The eight-acre site offers some unusual particulars, even by South Lake Union standards: along with a 17,000-square-foot office building, the property has 870 feet of shoreline, and a pair of 2,500-foot-long piers. Representatives of Kidder Mathews, which is marketing the property, remain confident that those distinctive features, plus its location in South Lake Union, will draw prospective buyers.  

Considering that Seattle’s technology sector has shown consistent growth, it is no surprise that tech giants continue to lavish attention on the Puget Sound market. A post on NBCBayArea.com reported that Facebook is seeking to expand its Downtown Seattle operations by some 40,000 square feet in order to accommodate a jump from 40 employees to 200. This move would follow recent moves like Google’s opening of a 1,000-person suburban office and Zynga’s leasing of 7,000 square feet in Pioneer Square.