Pokémon Leases 374K sf at Rising Office Tower in Bellevue

Pokémon Company International has cut a deal to occupy nearly three-fourths of the offices at Skanska’s 25-story tower under construction in Downtown Bellevue.

The unit of Pokémon, based in Tokyo, has leased 374,000 square feet at The Eight, in development at 10666 NE 8th Street, the Puget Sound Business Journal reported, citing unidentified sources. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The entertainment and card-game firm will take up 16 floors and 152,3009 square feet of parking at the tower developed by New York-based Skanska USA Commercial Development, a subsidiary of Skanska, based in Sweden.

The curving glass tower is expected to finish construction this spring. Pokemon is expected to occupy 72 percent of its offices and parking in January.

The Eight, a LEED Gold building rising at 8th Street and 108th Avenue, will contain 540,000 square feet of offices and 10,000 square feet of ground-floor shops and restaurants, according to its website.

Pokémon, serving as the building’s anchor tenant, represents the largest office lease by Skanska USA, according to the Business Journal.

“When we started developing The Eight, our goal was to attract world-class, innovative companies who valued best in class workplace and would see The Eight as the workplace of the future,” Charlie Foushée, executive vice president and regional manager for Skanska USA Commercial Development in Seattle, said in a statement.

Other local projects by Skaska include the 2+U tower in Downtown Seattle, 400 Fairview in South Lake Union and Stone34 in North Seattle.

Pokémon, in Bellevue for two decades, has grown to nearly 1,000 local employees, a nearly 500 percent increase in 10 years.

It expanded its Bellevue at Lincoln Square North by 55 percent to more than 155,000 square feet, according to a 2021 Broderick Group office market report.

The office market in Bellevue has hit headwinds in the past two years after Microsoft said it would exit as much as 2.7 million square feet as the tech firm consolidates to its newly expanded campus in Redmond.

TikTok is poised to lease more than 132,000 square feet of offices in Downtown Bellevue, doubling down on its e-commerce hub in space vacated by Microsoft.

— Dana Bartholomew