Amazon Commits $100M for Affordable Housing in Bellevue

Amazon.com has pledged $100 million to help build affordable housing outside Seattle.

The Seattle-based e-commerce firm said it earmarked the money from its Housing Equity Fund for affordable housing projects in Bellevue, east of Seattle across Lake Washington, the Puget Sound Business Journal reported.

Amazon has helped develop and preserve 1,400 homes in Bellevue, where the company was founded, boosting its number of affordable homes by 31 percent, according to the company.

Among them is a 234-unit affordable housing project by San Francisco-based Bridge Housing, which broke ground last month in Bellevue’s Spring District. The two-building complex is backed by a $22.1 million loan from Amazon, not part of the firm’s latest pledge.

“I’m excited to announce Amazon is committing $100 million to the city of Bellevue to fund high-priority affordable housing initiatives as we break ground on Spring District, one of our largest Puget Sound developments,” David Zapolsky, chief global affairs and legal officer at Amazon, told a crowd at a Feb. 27 ceremony.

The newly earmarked funds are part of the company’s $3.6 billion initiative to preserve and create 35,000 affordable homes in greater Seattle, Nashville and Washington, D.C.

None of the $100 million has been awarded, an unidentified Amazon spokesperson told the Business Journal.

For Bellevue, a tech hub home to eBay, Meta, ByteDance, Oracle, Salesforce, Google, Microsoft and a major Amazon campus, support for affordable housing was welcome.

“The ability to accelerate the production of affordable housing, especially in transit-oriented districts, is vital for meeting the needs of our city,” Bianca Siegl, director of Bellevue’s Office of Housing, told the newspaper in an email.

Last year, Amazon contributed $68 million to 120 Washington State development partners, including Bridge for its Spring District project.

The apartments at 1601 120th Avenue NE are expected to be completed late next year for tenants who earn less than 60 percent of area median income, or $61,908 for a single person.

— Dana Bartholomew