Artificial intelligence giant OpenAI plans to occupy at least two floors of a tower formerly occupied by Microsoft in downtown Bellevue, east of Seattle, a shift that reflects the increasing use of commercial real estate by some AI firms.
The San Francisco-based company is taking the 16th and 17th floors at the nearly 575,000-square-foot City Center Plaza office building at 555 110th Ave. NE, according to city permit documents.
OpenAI, developer of the ChatGPT AI chatbot, is the latest company to fill space vacated in Bellevue by Microsoft, which announced in 2022 that it would move out of City Center Plaza and several other buildings. The tech giant is consolidating operations at its expanded corporate headquarters in Redmond.
OpenAI joins other new tenants, such as engineering and architecture firm HDR and accounting firm Clark Nuber. Other companies such as Zoom, Shopify, TikTok and Walmart have signed big office deals in Bellevue, as well.
The company announced last fall on social media that it was opening offices in the Seattle area; New York City; Paris, France; Brussels, Belgium; and Singapore.
OpenAI occupies over 900,000 square feet across several buildings at its San Francisco headquarters, and moved into 90,000 square feet in New York in January, according to CoStar data. Additional space taken by AI firms in San Francisco has helped the city rebound from the low occupancy that struck as a result of the pandemic.
Bellevue in demand
With a vacancy rate of about 14.6%, less than half the rate in downtown Seattle, downtown Bellevue is among the best-performing office districts in the Puget Sound region, according to CoStar analytics.
Such firms as Warner Bros. Discovery have opted to move to Bellevue from Seattle, which has been slower to recover since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
OpenAI is building out offices and support areas at City Center Plaza tower, which will include a kitchen, cafe, and an interconnecting stairway, according to city documents.
The space will have desks for about 370 employees as OpenAI looks to tap into the Seattle region's pool of tech talent, according to the Puget Sound Business Journal, which first reported the OpenAI lease.
The precise square footage that OpenAI will occupy is unclear. The original permit application filed in February included the 15th through 17th floors for a total of 69,000 square feet, but city records show that the 15th floor work was canceled. The 16th and 17th floors have a total of almost 49,000 square feet, CoStar data shows.
OpenAI did not respond to requests to comment from CoStar News on its footprint or details about its plans to establish offices in Bellevue.