Amazon has quietly made one of the most significant purchases in downtown in years. They have bought 3 blocks of the Clise Properties real estate holdings and plan to put a 1 million sq ft office tower on each. This will have a huge impact on jobs and growth in the downtown Seattle business area. Amazon already has made a big impact in the South Lake Union community with their leased holdings from Vulcan Real Estate. But this will be their first step into buying and developing their own space. They also acquired options to purchase other Clise Properties, which gives a glimpse into the future of how the remainder of the Denny Triangle may be shaped.
While this may adversely impact the views of 2200 Westlake Condos, office buildings, and other condos directly east of this development, there is no doubt that this will be a huge boost to the local economy for jobs and housing prices. This project will almost ensure a large increase in well-paid Amazon employees downtown, where most will commute to work via light-rail or bus. So besides downtown, all the surrounding areas with access to mass transit should benefit from more traffic for local businesses as well as increased demand for quality housing.
(See Seattle Times article for more detail.)