Seattle-area office building sells for $401m

Equity Commonwealth has agreed to sell the 435,406-square-foot Tower 333 office building in the Seattle suburb of Bellevue, Wash., for $401.5 million.

The seller was not disclosed in the firm’s fourth quarter earnings call.

Tower 333 is a 20-story, class A office tower, featuring a modern glass exterior curtain wall. The property offers a half-acre outdoor plaza and an eight-level below-grade parking garage.

Investment in the Seattle suburban office region has been exceptional in 2019, reported Cushman & Wakefield in its fourth quarter 2019 report. The statewide increase of the real estate excise tax on major sales (effective January 2020) drove sellers to unload their assets by the end of the year. More than $10.3 billion traded in 2019, a 110 percent increase from a year ago.

The Seattle suburban office market grew in inventory by nearly 1 million square feet in 2019, a significant jump from the 67,000 square feet that delivered in 2018.