Real estate developer Skanska has signed Pokémon Co. International as the anchor tenant for its 25-story office tower under construction in downtown Bellevue in one of the biggest office lease deals in greater Seattle in nearly four years.

Pokémon, a Japanese media franchise built around a trading card game that includes video games, animated series and films, is expanding through a lease spanning just over 374,000 square feet, or nearly 70% of the office space at Skanska’s the Eight, scheduled to finish construction this spring.

Skanska noted the deal marks the largest office lease signed in the company's history, though it declined to name the tenant. A person close to the transaction confirmed Pokémon is behind the deal for the building at 10660 NE 8th St.

The new tenant, expected to occupy the building in January 2025, joins TikTok as the latest company to expand in downtown Bellevue, a fast-growing business district east of Seattle that's home to notable technology tenants.

“Aside from Amazon, it looks like this is the largest office lease signed for office space in Seattle since the onset of the pandemic,” said Elliott Krivenko, CoStar’s director of market analytics in Seattle. “Seeing companies like TikTok and Pokémon expanding on the Eastside is not surprising, given the deep tech talent pool in the area to draw from.”

The Bellevue central business district is among the fastest-growing office hubs in the nation, driven in part by Amazon's relocation of thousands of jobs across Lake Washington from its Seattle headquarters, according to CoStar market data. About 2 million square feet of office space has been built in the city's core over the past year, all now occupied by Amazon.

The region is still experiencing headwinds in the shape of climbing availability, largely caused by Microsoft's move to give up nearly 2 million square feet in Bellevue, including 1 million square feet in the central business district. That has pushed the area's vacancy rate from 6% in 2021 to nearly 10% this year, though that figure is still well below the 24% vacancy rate in Seattle's central business district.

Tenants have been moving to backfill those availabilities, including TikTok, which is taking 132,000 square feet of space previously used by Microsoft at the Lincoln Square North tower at 700 Bellevue Way NE in downtown Bellevue. Roughly 20 tenants are touring or negotiating for notable blocks of office space downtown, according to the latest market report from real estate brokerage Broderick Group.

The Puget Sound Business Journal first reported in October that a subsidiary of The Pokémon Co., based near Tokyo, was close to signing a lease at the Eight. Pokémon currently occupies more than 100,000 square feet at Kemper Development Co.’s Lincoln Square South Tower, also in Bellevue, CoStar data shows.

The Eight, designed by architecture firm Pickard Chilton, spans nearly 540,000 square feet and is the largest single investment for Skanska, which has invested a total of $3.5 billion in commercial and multifamily development projects, the Stockholm, Sweden-based company said in a statement.

Grant Yerke, principal with Broderick Group, represented the tenant. Tim Owens, Scotta Ashcroft and Lennon Atteberry of CBRE represented Skanska.