TikTok Expands in Bellevue, Leases 150,000 Square Feet of Former Microsoft Office Space

TikTok broadens its footprint in downtown Bellevue’s Lincoln Square North tower by leasing approximately 150,000 square feet of office space, formerly occupied by Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT). This space, listed as available by the Broderick Group until recently, has now been leased. The commercial brokerage firm confirmed that floors nine and 11 through 16 were recently leased but did not disclose the tenant.

An anonymous industry insider revealed to the Business Journal that TikTok is the new tenant occupying these seven floors. TikTok did not respond to a request for comment.

Previously, TikTok, owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, had leased floors 23 through 28 and has been filing new permit applications throughout the building in recent months.

Public records from the city of Bellevue indicate that the former Microsoft floors now leased by TikTok can accommodate more than 1,000 employees. According to Business Journal research, TikTok currently employs over 1,200 people in the Seattle area.

A report from The Information last year noted that TikTok’s aggressive hiring in the region aims to compete with Amazon for e-commerce talent.

TikTok has been one of the most active tenants in the Puget Sound region’s office market. Reports from Colliers and Kidder Mathews showed that the Q4 2023 vacancy rate in Seattle’s central business district was between 22.5% and 23.9%. In comparison, downtown Bellevue’s office vacancy rate is lower, although the city is losing Microsoft, which has vacated several towers.

While companies like Amazon.com Inc., Microsoft, Meta Platforms Inc., and Google parent Alphabet Inc. are reducing their office space, TikTok has leased at least 450,000 square feet in downtown Bellevue, including space in the Key Center and Lincoln Square North. The Key Center space was subleased from SAP Concur and Meta.

TikTok’s expansion in Bellevue coincides with Amazon’s Bellevue workforce nearing 13,000 employees and two new office towers in the downtown core nearing completion.