City Alters Safeco Campus Agreement

REDMOND, WA-The Redmond City Council has approved significant changes to its development agreement with Safeco Corp. regarding its 46-acre business campus in the Overlake area.

The changes include a 10-year extension of the original six-year agreement, an additional 88,600 sf of development on the property and the removal of a traffic signaling requirement. As part of the deal, Safeco is deeding the city a 4.6-acre parcel on Leary Way. After a one-year extension last fall, the agreement was scheduled to expire in May 2005.

The campus currently holds seven buildings totaling about 1.4 million sf that were built between 1976 and 2001. Altered last week was the Phase III development agreement, which called for an additional 356,890 sf in two office buildings, a cafeteria and a data center. The Phase III agreement was originally signed in 1998 and was scheduled to expire next month. Last August, after ownership of the campus was transferred to General America Corp., the city council approved a one-year extension of the development agreement.