Downtown Seattle’s swankiest office towers are watching their values fall faster than the elevator in rush hour. As vacancy rates spike, the city’s most expensive high-rises have seen their assessed values plunge, wiping billions off the tax rolls and leaving street-level storefronts noticeably quieter. The damage is concentrated in a small cluster of landmark skyscrapers that once symbolized the city’s tech boom, and the hit is now landing on landlords, retailers and municipal budgets alike. For many small businesses that count on weekday office crowds, the downtown “recovery” has felt uneven at best.
Big-Picture Numbers And The Tax Hit
The Downtown Seattle Association’s 2025 “At a Glance” report, based on county assessment records, found that the…..