Microsoft and Amazon published a joint op-ed and full-page ad in The Seattle Times urging Washington lawmakers to address the state’s housing crisis. (GeekWire Illustration)
They’re rivals in the cloud, and competitors for customers and talent. But Microsoft and Amazon are on the same page when it comes to Washington state’s housing crisis — literally, in the case of an op-ed Friday and full-page ad last Sunday in The Seattle Times.
The Seattle region “faces a housing emergency that threatens our state’s quality of life, health and economic competitiveness,” write Brad Smith, Microsoft’s vice chair and president, and David Zapolsky, Amazon’s chief global affairs and legal officer.
It was an unusual joint byline, to say the least, but it reflected the similar big-picture goals of their separate housing initiatives.
Combined, the two companies have committed $1.6 billion to preserve and build more than 26,000 affordable homes in the region. But the executives say even that isn’t enough, framing the problem as a supply issue that requires building “more homes of all kinds.”
They’re backing several bills in the current legislative session, including SB 6026, which would allow residential development on commercial land like strip malls and big-box stores. They also praise Gov. Bob Ferguson’s proposed $225 million in bonds for the state Housing Trust Fund.
“Going forward, legislators must commit to a simple test: If a policy makes housing more costly or takes longer to build, don’t pass it. Consider an alternative,” they write. “Enact policies that pencil in today’s market, not aspirational measures that might work down the line.”
They warn that other states are moving faster to attract developers. “Capital is fluid,” they write. “Banks, investors and lenders are going where they can make predictable returns.”
State leaders who want to curb the increasingly violent arrest tactics of immigration enforcement agents in Minneapolis and elsewhere are struggling to push back.
They’ve promised civil rights legislation that could offer alleged victims another route to courts, ordered up official tribunals to gather video and other records, or asked cities to refuse requests to cooperate with raids. But for the most part, states looking for concrete ways to push back find themselves largely hamstrung.
In a win for President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, a recent court ruling has cleared the way for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to resume using states’ Medicaid data to find people who are in the country illegally.
The case is ongoing. But for now, immigrants — including those who are in the country legally — will have to weigh the benefits of gaining health coverage against the risk that enrolling in Medicaid could make them or their family members easier for ICE to find.
New research shows Americans are paying almost the entire cost of President Donald Trump’s tariffs, directly challenging his repeated assertion that foreign nations absorb the burden.
Nearly all tariff costs fall on American importers and consumers, underscoring that Americans – not foreign entities – are covering the expense, according to a report from the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, a German think tank.
The Pioneer Collective co-working space is located in the historic Guiry Schillestad Building at 2101 1st Ave. in Seattle. (TPC Photo)
The Pioneer Collective is expanding its co-working space in the Belltown neighborhood of downtown Seattle.
TPC is taking over 6,600 square feet of space directly above its current location in the historic Guiry Schillestad Building at 2101 1st Ave. The new footprint is just under 20,000 square feet.
The space, just a block from the Pike Place Market, was previously home to outdoor retailer Orvis and prior to that, Urban Hardwoods.
TPC, which was founded in 2014 by husband-and-wife team Christopher Hoyt and Audrey Hoyt, operates other co-working locations in Ballard, at the West Canal Yards development near Interbay, and in Tacoma, Wash.
TPC will gain 6,600 square feet of space at its Belltown location. (TPC Photo)
“Even with the challenges downtown has faced, Belltown has been a great neighborhood for us,” TPC CEO Christopher Hoyt said in a news release. “Almost since opening, we’ve wanted more space at this location and we’re excited that we finally have the opportunity to expand.”
The expansion will give TPC extra meeting room capacity and additional private offices for teams of up to 10 employees. The project is currently in permit review and construction is expected to begin in February with an opening date planned for late summer.
Seattle’s co-working market ranks 14th nationally by total co-working square footage, with roughly 3.16 million square feet across about 160 spaces.
In consulting rooms across America, physicians face a challenge that no medical school prepared them for. A parent arrives with a list of concerns gathered from social media, podcasts, and well-meaning friends. The questions sound scientific. The language borrows from immunology. The citations reference real studies. And yet the conclusions are wrong.
A year ago, Donald Trump assumed the presidency for a second time and immediately got to work dismantling the climate progress that Joe Biden’s administration had made.
For switching high-powered loads from a microcontroller, or for switching AC loads in general, most of us will reach into the parts bin and pull out a generic relay of some sort. Relays are fundamental, proven technologies to safely switch all kinds of loads. They do have their downsides, though, so if you need silent operation, precise timing, or the ability to operate orders of magnitude more times you might want to look at a triac instead. These solid state devices can switch AC loads unlike other transistor-based devices and [Ray] at OpenSprinkler is here to give us an overview on how to use them.
The key to switching an AC load is bi-directional conductivity. A normal transistor or diode can only conduct in one direction, so if you try to switch an AC load with one of these you’ll end up with what essentially amounts to a bad rectifier. Triacs do have a “gate” analogous to the base of a bipolar junction transistor, but the gate will trigger the triac when current flows in either direction as well. The amount of current needed to trigger the triac does depend on the state of the switched waveform, so it can be more complex to configure than a relay or transistor in some situations.
After going through some of the theory around these devices, [Ray] demonstrates how to use them with an irrigation system, which are almost always operating on a 24VAC system thanks to various historical quirks. This involves providing the triacs with a low voltage source to provide gate current as well as a few other steps. But with that out of the way, switching AC loads with triacs can become second nature. If you prefer a DC setup for your sprinklers, though, [vinthewrench] has demonstrated how to convert these sprinkler systems instead.
The newly named JPMorganChase Center in downtown Seattle, previously known as the Russell Investments Center, is home to JPMorganChase’s Seattle Tech Center. (GeekWire Photo / Taylor Soper)
One of Seattle’s tallest skyscrapers has a new name that reflects JPMorganChase’s growing banking and technology hub in Seattle.
Formerly known as the Russell Investments Center, the building at 1301 Second Ave. is now the JPMorganChase Center.
The renaming coincides with JPMorganChase adding an additional 40,000 square feet at the 42-floor tower, which also houses Zillow Group and Perkins Coie.
The financial services giant, which now occupies 128,000 square feet, is also relocating its Seattle Tech Center from 1201 Third Ave. to the newly expanded space.
JPMorganChase has 850 employees in Seattle, including 400 tech workers — that’s up slightly from 380 people last year.
The company’s Seattle Tech Center opened in 2018, in part to tap into the region’s talent pool. The center focuses on areas including cybersecurity, cloud technologies, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. It’s led by Mamtha Banerjee, a computer scientist, business leader, and Seattle startup veteran.
JPMorganChase implemented a five-day in-office policy last year. It has more than 2,220 employees across 150 branches and corporate offices in Washington state. There are about 320,000 employees globally. The company recently opened a new headquarters in Manhattan.
The company also on Wednesday anounced $1.5 million in grants to five Seattle-area nonprofits: Business Impact NW, Friends of Little Saigon, Rainier Valley Community Development Fund, Seattle University’s RAMP-up, and the Capitol Hill EcoDistrict program of the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle.
The office expansion comes as downtown Seattle hit another record high for vacancy rate last year at 34.7% in Q4, as hybrid work continues to weigh on the commercial real estate market.
Zillow once filled several floors of the JPMorganChase Center but scaled down after committing to remote work during the pandemic. More than 70% of the Zillow’s workforce is made up of remote employees.
Russell Investments moved its Seattle headquarters last year from 1301 Second Ave. to nearby Rainier Square.
Gov. Bob Ferguson delivered his State of the State address in Olympia, Wash., on Jan. 13. (Governor’s Office Photo)
While artificial intelligence is generating all the buzz, it was Washington state’s climate tech and healthcare innovation that got shoutouts during Gov. Bob Ferguson’s State of the State address on Tuesday.
The speech largely focused on this winter’s epic flooding in Western Washington, the affordability and housing crisis, transportation infrastructure needs and Ferguson’s support for a “millionaire’s tax” targeting the state’s wealthiest residents.
The traditional tech sector — which accounts for roughly 22% of the state economy — was largely absent from the governor’s address. But he did call out groundbreaking innovation happening across Washington.
Ferguson praised Helion Energy’s efforts to build what could become the first commercial fusion reactor — a world-changing accomplishment, provided the device works as planned. Helion, based in Everett, Wash., broke ground on the Orion facility last summer and aims to get the Eastern Washington plant operating by 2028. Microsoft agreed to buy energy from the plant if Helion is successful in harnessing fusion power.
The governor also called out last week’s official launch of the Cascadia Sustainable Aviation Accelerator, an effort to support R&D and build out a marketplace for low-carbon aviation fuels. The event, which was held north of Seattle, brought together Boeing, Amazon, Alaska Airlines and others.
In his speech, Ferguson framed the initiative as “an opportunity for our state to, once again, set an example and set the pace for clean energy investment.”
And he gave a nod to the University of Washington, Fred Hutch Cancer Center and the Allen Institute as “part of a globally recognized ecosystem working on next generation drug discovery and treatments.” The Seattle area is a hub for academics and startups developing AI-driven therapies, with many building on innovations from the UW lab of Nobel Laureate David Baker.
“These are just a few of the reasons why the state of our state is strong, but I am clear eyed,” said Ferguson, who is navigating a multibillion-dollar budget shortfall. “I’m clear eyed about the areas where we must do better, and my first proposed budget is laser focused on those improvements to keep our growth going.”
Downtown Seattle. (GeekWire File Photo / Taylor Soper)
Tech companies are still signing leases in downtown Seattle — but it’s not enough to reverse a pandemic-era slide that pushed office vacancy to another record high, reaching 34.7% in Q4.
The latest numbers from commercial real estate firm CBRE underscore how hybrid work and shrinking office footprints continue to weigh on a tech-heavy market like Seattle. The vacancy rate is up about two percentage points from a year ago, and a fivefold increase from before the pandemic.
Downtown Seattle lost 257,879 square feet of occupied space in Q4, driven by tenant “rightsizing” and reductions in average space requirements, according to CBRE.
Tech companies are still boosting leasing activity in downtown. Impinj renewed and expanded into 73,638 square feet at 400 Fairview, while DAT Solutions (which acquired Seattle startup Outgo last year) and Docker both took sublease space at the Maritime Building along the waterfront — 51,777 and 33,757 square feet, respectively.
But the data shows how Seattle’s commercial real estate market continues to struggle amid remote work and broader pressures including tech layoffs and companies using AI to operate with leaner teams. CoStar reported in November that Seattle recorded the slowest rent growth among the nation’s largest markets over the past year.
Data from CBRE.
Meanwhile, the Eastside is showing early signs of stabilization, fueled in part by Microsoft’s new leases in Redmond and Amazon’s continued buildout in downtown Bellevue. Both companies are enforcing return-to-office policies.
Several technology companies have signed new or expanded leases on the Eastside in recent years, including OpenAI, Snap, Anduril, Shopify, Snowflake, Walmart, and Chewy.
“Notably, a growing number of new-to-market entrants … are choosing the Eastside over Seattle, drawn by Bellevue’s modern office inventory, business friendly climate and skilled technology workforce,” Broderick Group wrote in a new report.
Despite the positive signals, Broderick cautioned that vacancy is unlikely to fall sharply in the near term. Downtown Bellevue’s vacancy rate stood at 25.4% at the end of Q4, up from 16.8% a year ago.
The debate over private listings and pre-marketing in Washington state could soon reach a turning point if a bill requiring the public marketing of residential properties advances in the state legislature.
Washington Realtors is backing SB6091, a new draft bill aimed at curbing exclusive home marketing practices — while stopping short of mandating MLS participation. The trade group informed members of the effort on Jan. 9 in preparation for the start of Washington’s short legislative session this week. The organization shared the draft bill with Real Estate News and other media outlets on Jan. 12; Inman was first to report on the initiative.
‘As consumer-friendly’ as possible
Ryan Beckett, Washington Realtors’ 2026 president, said the measure is designed to prioritize consumers rather than settle industry disputes over platforms or listing strategies. The draft bill would prohibit real estate brokers from marketing residential properties to a limited or exclusive group of buyers or brokers unless the property is also marketed publicly at the same time.
“The ultimate goal is being as consumer-friendly as humanly possible for anybody trying to buy or sell real property,” Beckett said of the effort. “When we keep having these conversations about private listing networks, we recognize that it really is at odds with that concept.”
Under the bill, brokers would still be free to use private listing networks or other selective marketing strategies — but only if the listing is also made available publicly “in some way, shape or form,” Beckett explained.
“We’re not telling anybody they can’t use a private listing network, or that they can’t market their property the way they want to,” he said. “But if you do go forward with that particular strategy, you also have to make it available publicly.”
MLS entry not required: ‘We’re not giving parameters’
Unlike the National Association of Realtors’ Clear Cooperation Policy, the bill does not tie compliance to MLS rules or require brokers to include their listings in the MLS. Beckett emphasized that the language in the bill is intentionally platform-neutral.
“Publicly marketing could be as simple as putting it on your website,” he said. “We’re not telling you you have to have it in the MLS. We’re not giving parameters other than saying it does need to be publicly available to the community.”
A state effort with no industry partnerships involved
Washington isn’t the first state to attempt to codify residential listing access in state law.
Just last month, the Wisconsin legislature passed a bill requiring residential properties to be marketed “on one or more Internet platforms or websites accessible to the general public” within one business day of a signed listing agreement, unless the seller completes and signs a state-mandated disclosure form. The law is set to go into effect in January 2027.
A similar bill was introduced in Illinois last year — and in that case, Zillow was a key partner in the effort. But in Washington, Beckett said his organization deliberately avoided framing the bill as a response to specific companies or industry rivalries.
“Zillow and Compass are both members of our organization,” he said. “We hate getting involved where members are being pitted against one another. We tried very, very hard to stay out of that completely.”
“For us, that’s the big key — just making sure there’s enough transparency out there that consumers in the market are aware of what’s available,” Beckett said.
The legislation does include limited carve-outs for sellers with health, safety or confidentiality concerns, however, including in situations where medical issues would require limiting the number of people entering a home. Beckett said some of those exceptions already exist in state law, with others clarified in the new bill.
The bill has bipartisan support in both legislative chambers: In the Senate, sponsors include Sens. Marco Liias (D-21), Emily Alvarado (D-34), Chris Gildon (R-25), John Braun (R-20) and Jessica Bateman (D-22); in the House, the bill is sponsored by Reps. Strom Peterson (D-21) and April Connors (R-8), Washington Realtors told Real Estate News.
Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman at the 2018 GeekWire Summit. (GeekWire File Photo / Dan DeLong)
Glenn Kelman, the longtime CEO of Redfin and one of the most recognizable leaders in the U.S. real estate industry, is stepping down.
Kelman’s departure comes six months after Redfin completed its $1.75 billion acquisition to Rocket Companies. His last day is Friday.
“Redfin just completed our first phase as a Rocket company, integration,” Kelman wrote in an email to employees that he also posted on LinkedIn. “We’ll start the second, much-longer phase at next week’s all-company meeting, which is much-greater scale. Approaching that, I had to decide whether to be at Rocket for years.”
Rocket Companies CEO Varun Krishna will run Redfin until the company finds a permanent new leader. Kelman will remain in an advisory role through April 1.
“Instead, I want to try finding another mission-driven enterprise outside of real estate,” Kelman wrote. “I’m grateful that Rocket has turned out to be such a good owner of Redfin, and that Varun has been such a kind leader.”
Rocket’s acquisition of Redfin in July brought together the nation’s largest mortgage lender with the tech-enabled Seattle-based real estate brokerage. The deal valued Redfin at more than double its market capitalization prior to the acquisition’s public announcement in March 2025.
In an email to staff, obtained by GeekWire, Krishna described Redfin as the “front door to Rocket.”
“We are betting big on Redfin’s future,” he wrote in the memo. “More investment in brand, hiring, traffic growth, and innovation. We will aggressively play to win, with the full strength of Rocket behind this team.”
Krishna added: “Redfin is on the precipice of one of the most exciting transformations in its history, and we’re leaning into it.”
Kelman joined Redfin in 2005, a year after it launched, and helped guide the company from a small Seattle startup into a nationally known real estate brokerage and technology platform. Redfin went public in 2017 in a deal that valued the company at $1.73 billion.
Known for his candid communication style, Kelman frequently spoke publicly about housing affordability, agent compensation, and the structural challenges facing the real estate market. In recent years, he oversaw workforce reductions and cost-cutting measures as higher interest rates slowed home sales and forced real estate tech companies to recalibrate growth expectations.
“Glenn pioneered home search as we know it today and transformed a visionary startup into the Redfin we know today,” Rocket said in a statement to GeekWire. “He built a company that saved thousands of homeowners money and made the American Dream more accessible. We wish Glenn well in his next chapter.”
In his note to employees — titled “Unemployed, In Greenland” — Kelman said he’ll look for a “mission-driven enterprise outside of real estate” for his next opportunity.
He described Redfin as “the only real estate company to take full responsibility for our customers, from click to keys.”
“For most of Redfin’s history, our website expansion was slowed by our brokerage, and our brokerage expansion was slowed by employing our agents,” he wrote. “But standing behind our service was always worthwhile. Now with portals, lenders and brokers racing to stitch together their services, our patient approach has turned out to be the best way to help people all the way home.”
Redfin grew revenue by 7% in 2024 to $1.04 billion, with a net loss of $164.8 million, up from $130 million in 2023. Its stock had fallen more than 30% in the month leading up to the acquisition announcement in March.
Detroit-based Rocket Companies went public in 2020. In addition to mortgage lending products, Rocket also sells personal loans and other fintech offerings. Last year Rocket acquired mortgage lender Mr. Cooper Group in a $9.4 billion stock deal.
Minneapolis is once again the focus of debates about violence involving law enforcement after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old mother, in her car.
On Monday, acting Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Jim O’Neill signed a decision memo adopting the most significant weakening of childhood vaccine recommendations in modern American history.
Microsoft’s headquarters campus in Redmond. (GeekWire Photo / Taylor Soper)
Microsoft’s decision to renew a large swath of office space in Redmond is emerging as a key stabilizing force for the Eastside office market near Seattle.
That’s one takeaway from a new report by commercial real estate firm Broderick Group, which highlighted Microsoft’s renewal for 396,228 square feet at Redmond Town Center, just north of the company’s main headquarters campus. The deal was one of the largest office transactions on the Eastside in 2025.
Microsoft confirmed the new lease when contacted by GeekWire. The tech giant also confirmed a report from the Seattle Times that it is reoccupying space at the Millennium Corporate Park location in Redmond, where it has about 480,000 square feet. The company had previously offered that space for sublease.
While Microsoft was responsible for some of the region’s largest space givebacks last year — including a 750,000-square-foot reduction at The Bravern in Bellevue — the latest commitments suggest the company is holding onto its remaining footprint as it begins enforcing a new return-to-office policy. This past September the company announced that it would implement a three-day in-office requirement, starting across the Seattle region in February before expanding to other U.S. locations and eventually globally.
Both Microsoft and Amazon — and their respective in-office policies — appear to be playing an outsized role in determining how quickly the Eastside’s office recovery takes shape, even as overall vacancy reached 21.8% in the fourth quarter.
Amazon, which last year increased its own in-office policy from three to five days a week, continues building out major projects in Bellevue, including Bellevue 600, The Artise, and West Main. The company employs more than 12,000 people in Bellevue as part of what it calls its “Puget Sound headquarters” which also includes its Seattle campus. Amazon cut 14,000 workers in broad layoffs in October, with 2,303 corporate employees in Washington state.
The light blue bars show vacancy rates growing from 5.8% in 2019 to 2.8% in 2025. (Broderick Group chart)
A growing roster of technology companies has also signed new or expanded leases on the Eastside in recent years, including OpenAI, Snap, Anduril, Shopify, Snowflake, Walmart, and Chewy.
“Notably, a growing number of new-to-market entrants … are choosing the Eastside over Seattle, drawn by Bellevue’s modern office inventory, business friendly climate and skilled technology workforce,” Broderick’s report noted.
Despite the positive signals, the firm cautioned that vacancy is unlikely to fall sharply in the near term. Downtown Bellevue’s vacancy rate stood at 25.4% at the end of the year.
The report also noted that more than 1% of the Eastside’s office inventory has been removed through office-to-residential conversions.
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