Rainier Square is a 58-story, 850-foot downtown Seattle tower with offices, apartments and ground-floor retail. Amazon had leased its office space, but in February 2019 said it intended to sublease it under its then-current plans. That changed the tower’s leasing story; it did not establish that Amazon had left Seattle or that the building had failed. The residences opened in 2021, and the project’s current website advertises both residential and office leasing without stating current occupancy or apartment availability.
What changed when Amazon planned to sublease
Amazon had leased the tower’s office space. In February 2019, the company said it intended to sublease that space “based on current plans.” A spokesperson cited Amazon’s construction of two million square feet of office space at its South Lake Union campus and said the company was evaluating its space requirements. The statement also said Amazon had more than 9,000 open Seattle roles and would continue to evaluate future growth. GeekWire’s 2019 report quoted the statement.
Contemporaneous coverage also situated the announcement amid a Seattle tax dispute and growth shifting toward Bellevue. Those were part of the context, not proof of a single cause. The announcement concerned Rainier Square space under Amazon’s plans at that time; it does not show that Amazon abandoned Seattle altogether.
What is in Rainier Square?
The project’s official description puts the wider development at 1.1 million square feet. The tower contains 734,000 square feet of office space and 189 apartments. The building has 58 stories and rises 850 feet, according to GeekWire’s 2021 account and the Rainier Square project site.
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| Part of the tower | What the sources describe |
|---|---|
| Office | 734,000 square feet, on 38 stories below the residences; the official project site describes office leasing. |
| Residential | 189 apartments on floors 39 to 58, with one-, two- and three-bedroom homes listed by the project site. |
| Ground floor | Retail and amenities marketed by the project site, including PCC Community Market, Fonté Coffee Roasters and Equinox Fitness. |
The design places a broader retail podium and office floors beneath narrower residential levels. The project’s original plan included a separate 12-story hotel, but that proposal changed to office floors in 2019 as market conditions evolved, according to Architectural Record’s design coverage.
Architectural Record also describes the tower’s SpeedCore composite steel-and-concrete core and two 36,000-gallon water tanks at the top, used as tuned liquid mass dampers to counter movement from wind. These are design details, not a performance test of the building.
Who leased office space after Amazon?
A September 2021 report named Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, RBC Wealth Management and Schroeter Goldmark Bender as office subtenants. It reported that Bank of America had 116,000 square feet. At that point, a JLL listing showed 526,000 square feet still available, according to GeekWire. These are historical figures and a historical tenant list, not a current vacancy measure or a complete present-day roster.
A different historical measure appears in a 2021 King County Department of Assessments report: it listed 800,685 office square feet as offered for sublease. That figure does not match the project’s 734,000-square-foot office description. The sources reviewed do not reconcile the difference, so the figures should not be treated as interchangeable.
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When did residents move in, and what did leasing look like?
The residences opened in late June 2021. In a September 2021 snapshot, more than 40% of the apartments were leased and 30% were occupied, GeekWire reported. Those rates describe the opening period, not current occupancy.
The same article gave then-current examples of about $3,000 per month for a 720-square-foot one-bedroom and $25,000 per month for one of four 3,000-square-foot penthouses. These are historical 2021 examples, not present-day rents. The report also said leases were offered for terms of up to 20 years.
Rainier Square’s current residences page says “Now Leasing,” but the project website does not state current apartment inventory, rents or occupancy. Its current office marketing likewise does not establish present occupancy or a complete current tenant list. The official project site also describes Amazon as subleasing 734,000 square feet and presents 400 University as another office option; those marketing statements do not verify today’s actual leasing status.
Quick Recap
How to read the building’s leasing history
- Amazon’s 2019 announcement: a plan to sublease the office space based on then-current plans, with the company citing its South Lake Union construction and review of space needs.
- The 2021 office snapshot: named subtenants and an availability figure reported at that time, not a current market update.
- The 2021 residential snapshot: early leasing and occupancy after the apartments opened, not evidence of present-day demand or availability.
- Current project marketing: an indication that office and residential leasing are being promoted, not a verified count of occupied offices or available apartments.
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