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Expedia Group’s Seattle headquarters was more than an office relocation. Announced in 2015 and previewed on June 26, 2019, the project transformed a former Amgen biotechnology campus on Elliott Bay into a roughly 40-acre corporate campus designed initially for about 4,500 Seattle-area employees.
The first phase opened in fall 2019 and early winter 2020. By 2026, the site remained Expedia’s corporate headquarters, while its public waterfront component had become part of Seattle’s broader Elliott Bay Connections network. The original “$900 million” figure described the reported campus investment—not the property’s purchase price or a fully itemized, independently audited final cost.
A Bellevue-to-Seattle relocation with regional consequences
Expedia announced its headquarters move from Bellevue to Seattle in 2015. The company paid $229 million for the former Amgen campus, a cost separate from the approximately $900 million investment later associated with renovating and expanding the site.
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The June 2019 preview featured Expedia Group CEO Mark Okerstrom and Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan. Former Expedia CEO Dara Khosrowshahi and former Seattle Mayor Ed Murray had helped advance the relocation earlier in the process.
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The move mattered because it was one of the Seattle region’s largest corporate relocations. It also placed a major technology employer beside Elliott Bay Trail, Myrtle Edwards Park, Centennial Park, Smith Cove, Port of Seattle facilities and other industrial-maritime uses in Interbay. This was not Seattle’s downtown central waterfront; it was a campus in a mixed office, park, port and transportation environment.
What the $900 million project included
The reported investment covered a combination of renovation, construction and site improvements. Expedia renovated buildings that had previously served as biotechnology laboratories and added two more buildings. The plan also included meeting and collaboration areas, recreational facilities, landscaping, transportation upgrades and public-facing waterfront work.
- Site: approximately 40 acres.
- Initial workforce: about 4,500 Seattle-area employees.
- Initial office space: more than 500,000 square feet in contemporaneous reporting.
- Seattle environmental-review figure: 546,000 square feet for an office-and-parking component.
- Potential future capacity: more than 8,000 workers if additional buildout occurred.
- Public space: roughly two acres or more in the 2019 plan, including waterfront and trail improvements.
The different office-area figures should not be treated as a contradiction. They may reflect different measurement methods or project scopes. Similarly, the available sources do not provide a complete ledger separating the $229 million acquisition from renovation, new buildings, infrastructure, landscaping, public-space work and possible future phases. It is therefore more accurate to call $900 million the reported overall project investment than to describe it as a verified final construction cost.
The campus’s signature design
Expedia presented the campus as a nature-oriented or “biophilic” workplace. Its design emphasized Elliott Bay and mountain views, natural light, open offices and outdoor gathering areas.
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Notable features included playing fields, outdoor meeting spaces and an amphitheater equipped with Wi-Fi and enhanced mobile connectivity. A partially underground meeting building was designed with a grass-covered roof. The campus’s most distinctive structure, the Prow, took its shape from the bow of a ship and was intended to become a visual landmark on the site.
These features explain why the project was marketed as more than a conventional office complex. But they also require a distinction: the sources establish Expedia’s design goals, not independent evidence that the campus improved employee health, productivity or retention.
How the employee move was organized
In June 2019, Expedia expected the first employees to arrive in October. A July report described a 90-day countdown, with employees moving in waves of a few hundred at a time. The broader relocation was expected to continue through the following summer as construction finished.
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Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Later Seattle transportation materials confirm that the first phase was occupied in fall 2019 and early winter 2020. The relocation concerned the Seattle-area workforce and the capacity of the new campus—not every Expedia employee worldwide.
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The move also did not necessarily eliminate Expedia’s Bellevue presence immediately. Contemporary reporting said some space at Bellevue’s Skyline Tower would remain available to employees. Amazon separately signed a 16-year lease for more than 400,000 square feet in the former Expedia Tower, space that could accommodate approximately 2,500 people beginning in 2020.
The commute challenge
The central practical question was how thousands of people would reach a campus in Interbay. Expedia was moving workers from a Bellevue office-tower environment into an area where road congestion, limited transit capacity, port activity, rail infrastructure and nearby technology expansions could all affect travel.
Expedia’s proposed responses included employee shuttles, vanpools, coordination with King County Metro, large bicycle-storage facilities and pedestrian and trail improvements. GeekWire also reported a $5-per-day incentive for employees who did not drive to work.
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The company’s own commuting projections made the trade-off unusually clear. About 38% of employees reportedly drove alone to Expedia’s Bellevue offices. Expedia expected that share could initially approach 50% after the Seattle move, while company leaders hoped eventually to reduce solo driving below 30% once the transition stabilized.
Those figures were forecasts, not measured long-term results. The available sources do not verify whether the solo-driving rate ultimately fell below 30%. Seattle transportation and environmental-review documents did, however, examine traffic, parking, transit, circulation and trip generation under both initial and potential full-build scenarios.
This tension was central to the project: a waterfront campus could offer a more compelling workplace and stronger public-space connections while making daily access more complicated for employees and neighbors.
What the public received
The project included improvements to the Elliott Bay Trail between West Galer Street and Centennial Park. Expedia’s 2018 announcement described separate pedestrian and bicycle paths, a safer and softened trail corner, a new waterfront viewpoint and renovation of public areas. Temporary trail detours were expected during construction, with reopening planned for fall 2019.
The public amenities were not the same thing as public access to the entire campus. Expedia controlled the office buildings and workplace amenities, while the trail, viewpoints, parks and later waterfront landscape served the public.
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That distinction became more significant over time. In 2026, Seattle described The Beach at Expedia Group as a public landscape of more than 2.5 acres. The city also reported that Expedia had donated waterfront land for public access and that the site had been incorporated into the completed Elliott Bay Connections project, a broader network linking waterfront parks and paths.
Expedia’s role therefore extended beyond providing an office site. The company became one participant in a public-private effort to improve access along a section of Elliott Bay that combines corporate property, parks, trails and working maritime land.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What is confirmed—and what is not
| Question | What the available sources establish |
|---|---|
| Did the relocation happen? | Yes. Seattle documents say the first phase was occupied in fall 2019 and early winter 2020. |
| Is the site still Expedia’s headquarters? | Seattle planning documents identify the area as Expedia’s corporate headquarters. |
| Was the property bought for $900 million? | No. Expedia paid $229 million for the former Amgen campus in 2015. The $900 million figure refers to the reported broader project investment. |
| Did 8,000 employees arrive? | Not established. More than 8,000 was described as potential future capacity. |
| Did solo driving fall below 30%? | Not verified by the available sources. That was an objective reported in 2019. |
| Is the entire campus public? | No. Public access applies to designated waterfront, trail and park areas, not the private office campus. |
| Was the final cost $900 million? | The available sources do not provide an independently audited final cost or a complete itemized breakdown. |
Why the campus still matters
Expedia’s headquarters represented a major bet on the urban Seattle region at a time when large technology employers were expanding around the city. The company traded Bellevue’s office-tower model for a large, self-contained campus with natural features, outdoor amenities and a public waterfront edge.
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Its success should not be judged solely by architecture or employee amenities. The more consequential measures are whether transportation systems handled the added demand, whether public access remained meaningful, how the campus coexisted with nearby industrial and maritime activity, and whether the planned expansion beyond the first phase actually occurred.
The 2019 preview captured the ambition of the project. The confirmed record through 2026 is more specific: Expedia completed the initial relocation, the site remains its headquarters, and the waterfront has become part of a larger public landscape. The evidence does not establish every promised commuting outcome, the final total cost or the full 8,000-worker buildout.
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