Puget Sound Energy Inks 335,000-SF HQ Lease

BELLEVUE, WA-With a tenant in hand, Bentall will complete an 11-story Downtown office building here that was capped at three stories in 2002 due to declining market conditions. The tenant is Puget Sound Energy, which rents five of 14 floors in the first Summit building at Northeast Fourth Street and 108th Avenue Northeast and occupies two other owned properties in the city. The power company plans to consolidate its operations into the expanded 110 Summit Building, occupying all 335,000 sf of office space. The build-to-suit project at 355 110th Ave. NE is the first Downtown office development to move forward since two massive projects were halted after the collapse of the dot-com and telecom industries pushed vacancy in the submarket to nearly 30%. The city’s office vacancy rate has since fallen back to the low 20% range.Kemper Freeman, the developer of one of the stalled projects, Lincoln Square, is now working on the non-office portions of the 1.4-million-sf mixed-use project located across from the company’s Bellevue Square Mall. There are as yet no plans to finish the 20-story Bellevue Technology Tower, which was to rise on the corner of Northeast Fourth Street and 108th Avenue Northeast, near the Summit project.Puget Sound Energy plans to sell its two owned properties, the General Office Building at 10608 NE Fourth St. and at 805 156th Ave. NE. The disposition will require approval of the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission.Upon completion of Puget Sound Energy’s new headquarters, there will be room for one other building on Bentall’s Summit property. Slated for 320 108th Ave. NE, the building would have 350,000-sf of office space in 19 stories.