AKA: City Center Plaza II, Downtown, Bellevue, WA; City Center Plaza East, Downtown, Bellevue, WA

Structure Type: built works - commercial buildings - office buildings

Designers: Wright Runstad and Company (firm); Wright, Howard S., (HSW) Construction Company (firm); Zimmer Gunsul Frasca (ZGF) Partnership (firm); Robert J. Frasca (architect); Brooks R.W. Gunsul (architect); Harold Jon Runstad (developer); Howard S. Wright (building contractor/developer); Norman Cunningham Zimmer (architect)

Dates: constructed 2006-2009

26 stories, total floor area: 583,179 sq. ft.

555 110th Avenue NE
Downtown, Seattle, WA 98004

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Building History

Development firm, Wright Runstad, based in New York, NY and Seattle, WA, collaborating with Boston-based investors Beacon Capital Partners, initially proposed that the City Center II development consist of a 32-story tower when first announced in 2001. Later, they sized it up to 34 floors, then downsized it to its present 26 stories in 12/2005. In late 06/2007, City Center Plaza was the only office project in Downtown Bellevue that still had space to lease. The Seattle Times reported on 05/01/2008 that the Microsoft Corporation would lease all of the office space in the City Center Plaza which was then being erected at the intersection of NE 6th Street and 110th Avenue NE in Downtown Bellevue, WA. (Microsoft housed personnel working on its new Bing search engine in City Center II.) At this time, Microsoft experienced over-crowding at its Redmond, WA, campus, and decided to lease space in various Downtown Bellevue Office Towers. It contracted for 317,000 square feet at the Lincoln Square building and 740,000 more in the Bravern, near to the City Center Plaza. All of this space occupied by Microsoft made it the City of Bellevue's largest employer in 2008. Microsoft first occupied the City Center space in 05/2009. Its lease in City Center Plaza II gave it an option to stay in the building until 2024. Cole Real Estate Investments, a real estate investment trust headquartered in Phoenix, AZ, paid Beacon Capital Partners $310 million for the building in mid-05/2010.

Building Notes

This office tower had about approximately 563,000-square-feet of office space with 18,900-square-feet of retail space in 2010. The building's garage could accommodate 1,400 cars.

The building contractor Balfour Beatty purchased the Howard S. Wright Construction Company in 06/2011. Its web site described the City Center Plaza, Tower II, project: "Rising 26 stories in Bellevue’s downtown core, City Center Plaza spans the area adjacent to the transit center and the new City Hall, and is one of the largest of office buildings in Bellevue. Howard S. Wright provided preconstruction and construction services for this 561,000-square-foot building. Typical floors are approximately 22,000 square feet with a 30,000-square-foot mixed-use area at ground level, which includes an atrium lobby, retail tenants and a restaurant. The structure is comprised of structural steel and concrete with a translucent glass curtain wall. It includes four levels and 530,000 square feet of underground parking. The project also involved a 491,000-square-foot, 25-story tenant improvement that included a high-density, 7,000-square-foot computer lab, 20,000-square-foot full-service cafeteria, inter-floor connecting stairway, communication security access systems to separate public and tenant spaces, and high-level finishes." (See Balfour Beatty.com, "City Center Plaza," accessed 06/01/2018.)

PCAD id: 9260