Insight Global has doubled down on downtown Seattle at a time when many companies are slashing the physical size of their offices and opting to leave Seattle for Bellevue and other cities on the east side of Lake Washington.
The Atlanta-based national staffing agency instead signed one of 2023's biggest office leases in the region to expand west from Bellevue to 2323 Elliott in Seattle's Belltown, a unique office building atop a parking garage that is being extensively renovated by Seattle landlord Unico Properties.
Insight Global's expansion into Seattle — even as hybrid work arrangements and other challenges take a toll on the office market there and across the United States — is a bet on the Emerald City's resilience and the rising appeal of its revitalizing waterfront district.
The lease supports the staffing firm's West Coast expansion and is intended to bolster its training capacity, traits that helped earn the transaction a 2024 CoStar Impact Award, as judged by real estate professionals familiar with the market.
About the Deal: Insight Global's new office, in the former home of the Art Institute of Seattle, is a two-story office building on top of a five-story parking garage. The building is within walking distance of the iconic Pike Place Market and more than 50 restaurants and is near the Ferry Terminal and other transportation options.
The Colliers leasing team tapped the expertise of brokers in Seattle and Atlanta, Insight Global's corporate home, who worked together to negotiate the 10-year lease for the 74,722-square-foot office space that building owner Unico has refreshed to enhance natural light and add high-end bike lockers and showers as well as folding doors for open-air views of Elliott Bay, the Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains.
What the Judges Said: “It was a compelling story of an office tenant that is going against the grain by relocating to Seattle from Bellevue and expanding its space nearly three-fold while many others are downsizing," said Zane Shiras, CCIM, principal with Lee & Associates.
“In a world where tenants are contracting and relocating from Seattle to the Eastside, the leasing team overcame a challenge by bucking that trend," said Tyler Barth, senior vice president, Investments, Kilroy Realty Corp.
They Made it Happen: Leigh Callaghan with the Colliers office in Seattle, Jeff Jeremiah with the brokerage's Bellevue office and Jodi Selvey and Meredith Selvey of the Atlanta office represented the tenant.
CoStar Senior Research Manager Alexander Fairlie contributed.