One of Seattle’s heavyweight law firms is making a very public bet on downtown. Foster Garvey is packing up its current Seattle offices and heading for West8, the re-imagined 28-story tower in the Denny Triangle that used to house a big chunk of Amazon’s local staff. The long-term deal puts the firm on multiple floors in what counts as a rare big-tenant win for downtown landlords.
According to Connect Commercial Real Estate, Kilroy Realty has inked a roughly 52,000-square-foot lease with Foster Garvey that covers two and a half floors on a 13-year term. The firm is slated to start occupying the space in the third quarter of 2027, the outlet reports. In a year when big new office leases have been hard to come by in Seattle, this one stands out and signals that professional-services firms are still willing to pay up for high-quality space.
West8’s makeover and ownership
West8, at 2001 8th Ave, was purchased by Kilroy Realty in 2021 for about $490 million, according to Business Wire. Since then, the building has been repositioned with a major renovation. Kilroy’s property materials describe West8 as LEED Platinum and promote amenities such as a fitness center, rooftop deck and on-site childcare, the kind of perks landlords are leaning on to lock in long-term tenants.
The refresh has shifted West8 from an Amazon-anchored property to a multi-tenant office tower targeted at credit-worthy, service-sector tenants. In other words, less single-tech-giant, more diversified roster of firms that can sign the sort of long leases building owners crave…