Local CRE Trends

Discover What’s New and Interesting in Our Backyard

Seattle, Washington, located on the Puget Sound in the Pacific Northwest, is home to more than 704,000 residents in the city proper and approximately 3.8 million in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue Metropolitan Statistical Area. This picturesque city is surrounded by water, mountains and evergreen forests, and contains thousands of acres of parkland. It is renowned for its Space Needle and robust technology industry – tech giants Microsoft and Amazon are headquartered in Seattle.

The city is experiencing unprecedented growth, with more than 63,000 new jobs created in the last five years, primarily driven by a booming technology sector, according to the Seattle Economic Development Office. It has also been recognized as one of the fastest growing startup ecosystems in the nation. To increase the connection between these jobs and the local labor pool, and to diversify Seattle's technology workforce, the City of Seattle is working with local training partners to connect 2,000 people from underrepresented communities to technology jobs by 2020, according to the Seattle Economic Development Office.

Seattle is one of the major technology hubs in the nation. The University of Washington is internationally recognized as having one of the top-ranked computer science and life science programs in the world, producing a steady stream of talented graduates into the labor pool. More than 50 engineering centers are located in greater Seattle, who continue to strengthen the area’s economy. It has been ranked as having one of the nation’s fastest growing startup communities and boasts business-friendly infrastructure and resources, including co-working spaces and city services help founders launch and grow their startups.

Seattle boasts vibrant film and music industries; the Seattle music industry contributes more than $1.2 billion in sales and $487 million in earnings to the local community and provides more than 11,000 jobs, according to the Seattle Economic Development. Film and video production supports 4,991 jobs in Seattle, and the City enjoys over $471 million in additional economic output because of film and video production, according to the most recent report produced by the Seattle Mayor’s Office of Film and Music.

Seattle is also a gateway for global trade is renowned as the regional hub for the maritime and manufacturing sectors. Shipping, fishing and manufacturing is the foundation of the city’s economic success, according to the Seattle Economic Development Office. Other key sectors include maritime & manufacturing, life sciences & global health; and green business and clean technology.

The commercial real estate market in Seattle shows no sign of slowing down, as commercial development is expected to only increase, according to real estate services firm Colliers International. There is 7.08 million square feet of office under construction across the Seattle/Puget Sound region – 6.76 million square feet in Seattle and 750,000 square feet on the Eastside and South King County, according to Colliers International. The Seattle region is one of the top markets for construction activity, and the demand is expected to remain high through 2018.

 

About Fidelity National Financial

Fidelity National Financial, Inc. (FNF) is currently ranked #238 on the 2022 FORTUNE 500®*, and is among numerous defense, energy, media, hospitality and financial FORTUNE 500®* companies based in the region. Our Seattle-based team of CRE professionals works in all facets of the industry, including power and energy projects, office buildings, industrial parks, multifamily housing, retail properties, government contracts, corporate transactions and more.

Discover what’s new and interesting in our backyard in the latest real estate news, provided courtesy of the FNF Newsdesk.

*"FORTUNE®" and "FORTUNE 500®" are registered trademarks of Time Inc. From FORTUNE Magazine, May 2022 ©2022 Time Inc. FORTUNE and Time Inc. are not affiliated with, and do not endorse products or services of Fidelity National Financial. Fidelity National Title Insurance Company is a member of the Fidelity National Financial family of companies and the nation’s largest group of title companies and title insurance underwriters that collectively issue more title insurance policies than any other title company in the United States.

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