Tenants Want Better Space, and They Want It Now
The race is on to lure tenants seeking upgraded space in central locations in North Seattle, JLL’s Daniel Seger tells us—the better to keep employees happy. The urge to upgrade comes despite rising rents, he adds. Recently, Daniel and colleague and Brent Jackson repped the landlords at the 202k SF Redstone Corporate Center I (pictured below), where Radia, a radiology provider, inked a deal for 23k SF. Radia was on the hunt for a central, employee-friendly location, according to Daniel. (Are you telling us just letting them play with the X-ray machine wasn't enough of a perk?) Flinn Ferguson’s Dan Foster and Cameron Gellatly repped the tenant.
Though Seattle tech gets most of the attention, healthcare and life science are driving leasing here, too. A recent JLL report found that Seattle remains one of the strongest markets for life science companies in the country, mainly due to the strength of local life science R&D. The number of companies in the field is rising (up about 2% since last year), and so is VC funding for the industry ($275M raised in the last 12 months). Meanwhile, there's a lack of suitable space for such companies. In Lake Union, for instance, the only project now underway is Vulcan's BTS for the Allen Brain Institute. The report posits that tenants may start looking to traditional office space for life sciences conversion.
