Bentall Corp. Will Be First to Finish

In October, Bentall Corp. will start construction of the Summit Building, a 500,000-sf, dual tower office project in downtown Bellevue, near two other major downtown office projects that are already underway.

Across the street, ground has been broken for the 400,000-sf Bellevue Technology Center. Down the road, work began last week for the 400,000-sf Lincoln Center. Thankfully, said Gary Carpenter, Bentall’s U.S. COO,”our buildings are smaller as far as heighth, so we’ll actually be done before they will.”

Despite that, Carpenter told GlobeSt he’s not too worried about trying to secure commitments from tenants just yet. Indeed, said Carpenter, given the lilliputian vacancy rates in downtown Bellevue and throughout the Northwest for Class A office space – it’s hovering right around 1 percent – it would probably only lose the company money.

“The market is so hot you almost stub toe if you go too quick,” he said. “Rents are rising on a weekly basis around here.”

Assuming things stay tight and the two towers lease up relatively quickly, Bentall will begin construction of another 300,000 sf tower on the same property, bringing the entire project up to 850,000 sf, Carpenter said.

Elsewhere on the Eastside, Bentall is a month away from being permitted for the final building of the seven-building, 650,000-sf Milennium Corporate Park near Redmond Town Center on Union Hill Road. The rest of the park is 100 percent leased, much of it by Microsoft, whose campus is a mile down the road. Despite being 10 months out, tenants are standing in line for the new space, Carpenter said.

At Bentall’s Five Newport Corporate Park in Factoria, the seventh and final building of that development, a 285,000-sf, 10-story office building, will be ready for occupancy in October. Alas, it is 100 percent committed to Bellevue-based VoiceStream, which is being courted by the German telecommunications giant Deutsche Telekom.

Finally, in addition to 200,000-sf in Issaquah occupied by Microsoft, Bentall owns the 100% leased, 40-story US Bank Center building at Fifth and Pike in downtown Seattle, and is rumored to be putting property for a second downtown Seattle office development.

All told, when the Summit Building in downtown bellevue is up and running, Bentall will own close to four million square feet of Class A office product in King County, solidfying its position as one of the top three property owners in the Seattle area.