Schnitzer West JV Secures $525M Office Refi
Amazon fully occupies the 25-story, Class A+ building in downtown Bellevue, Wash.
Schnitzer West and The Baupost Group have refinanced The Artise, a recently delivered, 25-story, Class A+ trophy office tower in downtown Bellevue, Wash., with $525 million in financing provided by Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank. Tech and e-commerce giant Amazon is the sole office tenant at the 611,864-square-foot mixed-use building in the Seattle submarket.
The asset was previously subject to a $520.8 million construction loan originated in September 2021 from accounts managed by KKR, according to Yardi Matrix.
Located at the intersection of NE 8th Street and 106th Avenue, The Artise is a state-of-the-art, LEED Gold-certified office tower with approximately 7,500 square feet of ground-floor retail space and a public plaza. The building has five levels of below-grade parking with 927 parking stalls. The property includes 196 vertical bike racks, 12 e-bike charging stations and dedicated locker rooms. Among the building’s features are high-performance glazing and a 3,000-square-foot outdoor terrace.
The Artise is located near downtown Bellevue’s new light rail transit station.
Newmark team handled deal
Newmark arranged the refinancing, working with the borrowers to structure a competitive refinancing that aligns with the asset’s long-term investment strategy. Newmark Co-President of Global Debt & Structured Finance Jonathan Firestone and Vice Chairman Blake Thompson, in collaboration with Co-Head, U.S. Capital Markets Kevin Shannon, led the Newmark team.
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Firestone said in a prepared statement the transaction underscores lender confidence in Bellevue’s premier office market and the long-term durability of the tenancy.
Firestone and Thompson, along with Associate Director Jack Condon, also arranged financing for another Bellevue office tower this month. The team represented Kemper Development Co., which obtained a $238 million loan from Blackstone and New York Life to refinance Lincoln Square North, a 25-story, 561,466-square-foot office building in downtown Bellevue.
Amazon’s Bellevue expansion
Amazon announced it was preleasing The Artise office space in early 2021. The following year the tower became one of five high-rise office projects in Bellevue where Amazon paused buildouts. The company stated in 2022 it needed to reevaluate its space needs due to changes in work habits following the pandemic. Meanwhile, the developers continued shell and core construction, topping out the tower in February 2023. The Artise delivered in January 2024, according to Schnitzer West. The firm has developed or acquired and repositioned more than 12.5 million square feet of Class A office and suburban office, flex, industrial and bio-tech space, mixed-use and nearly 1,600 units of luxury multifamily residential in the Seattle, Denver and Portland, Ore., markets.
Multiple Seattle media outlets reported late last year Amazon was moving ahead to complete its Bellevue office projects, including The Artise. Permits were filed to restart build-out work at the tower in December, according to the Puget Sound Business Journal.
Other paused projects that are back on track include Tower 1 at Bellevue 600 at 633 110th Ave. NE and two towers in the three-building West Main complex at 117 106th Ave. NE,the PSBJ reported. Tower 1 at Bellevue 600 is one of the projects that will reshape Seattle when complete. The 43-story tower will comprise more than 1.5 million square feet of office space, along with retail and amenity areas.
While Amazon’s workforce in Seattle has declined to less than 50,000 from a peak of 60,000 in 2020, a company spokesperson recently told the PSBJ Amazon remains committed to growing its footprint in Bellevue. The company plans to eventually have 25,000 corporate employees in the Eastside city. As of 2024, Amazon occupied nine buildings in Bellevue.
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