Demolition of the original buildings, including all of the original X-shaped offices built in the 1980s, began in January 2019 and was completed that September. The newer buildings would be arranged like an urban neighborhood, centered around a 2-acre (0.81 ha) open space with sports fields (including a cricket pitch), retail space, and hiking trails. In November 2017, Microsoft unveiled plans to demolish 12 buildings on the older East Campus and replace them with 18 new buildings, housing 8,000 additional employees and raising the total number of buildings on the campus to 131. The initial campus was situated on a 30-acre (12 ha) lot with six buildings and was able to accommodate 800 employees, growing to 1,400 by 1988. Starting Feb. 23, Microsoft will require its employees to be in the office a minimum of three days per week, though there are some exceptions to the policy. On the flip side, office workers may see increased transportation expenses, greater childcare needs, and general inconvenience due to the time spent commuting.
The company said it wouldn’t renew its leases for the two Bravern Towers in downtown Bellevue and also let most of its leases expire in the Lincoln Square North tower. The company stunned Bellevue city leaders in 2023 when it said it would vacate the 26-story City Center Plaza office tower the following year. The policy will only apply to employees living within 50 miles of a Microsoft office in the Puget Sound region but will eventually roll out to the rest of the company. But in a major shift for the remote work-friendly company, Microsoft announced last year that it would require workers in the office at least three days per week starting Feb. 23. After years of shedding office space, Microsoft is slowly reversing course as it calls workers back to the office. For employees, Microsoft also operates a private commuter bus service called Connector that provides express service from the Redmond campus to neighborhoods in Seattle, the Eastside, and Snohomish County.
City records indicate the floors LinkedIn occupies can hold about 120 employees. Each following year that number fell, and in 2023, the company was no longer in the top 10. It held on to a couple of floors in Lincoln Square North for its subsidiary, LinkedIn, according to city permits. Microsoft was one of the last holdouts supporting remote work in the tech industry.
In 2009, a shopping mall called “The Commons” was completed on the campus, bringing 1.4 million square feet (130,000 m2) of retail space as well as restaurants, a soccer field, and a pub to the West Campus. In January 2006, Microsoft announced the purchase of Safeco’s Redmond campus after the company had begun consolidating its offices at the Safeco Tower in Seattle’s University District a year earlier. When large companies require employees to end remote work and return to the office (RTO), the effects typically ripple through local economies and nearby small businesses. We look forward to these employees reconnecting with the restaurants, shops, and small businesses that make Redmond such a vibrant community,” a city spokesperson wrote. REDMOND, Wash. — A tech giant’s return-to-office mandate could give small businesses a hefty economic lift. And at the beginning of 2025, e-commerce company eBay signed a 71,000-square-foot lease in Bellevue.
East Campus redevelopment
- Video showing the concept of the future campus.
- Broderick Group said several lease transactions are close to the finish line in early 2026 as tenant demand keeps ticking up.
- After years of shedding office space, Microsoft is slowly reversing course as it calls workers back to the office.
- For employees, Microsoft also operates a private commuter bus service called Connector that provides express service from the Redmond campus to neighborhoods in Seattle, the Eastside, and Snohomish County.
Microsoft’s office moves in Redmond are a reversal from the trend the tech giant had been on coming out of the pandemic. The decision to reoccupy those offices is based on various real estate strategies, a Microsoft spokesperson said. The project is an investment for the community and the more than 47,000 employees that work on the campus. Microsoft had proposed its own bus service as early as 1998 to augment existing public transit routes that serve the campus. Two more pedestrian bridges were jointly funded by Microsoft, the city government, and Sound Transit to connect the campus’s light rail stations.
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- Thousands of employees are due back at Microsoft next month as the company scales back remote work.
- Microsoft’s decision to vacate 750,000 square feet of office space between The Bravern Towers was the hardest hit to the Eastside market last year, according to Broderick Group.
- It held on to a couple of floors in Lincoln Square North for its subsidiary, LinkedIn, according to city permits.
- A moratorium on development was implemented by the city government of Redmond, which prevented further campus expansion.
- The first major expansion of the campus came in 1992, bringing the total amount of office space to 1.7 million square feet (160,000 m2) across 260 acres (110 ha) of land.
The original buildings were given sequential numbers, except for 7, due to a delay in permitting that became indefinite. Construction began on August 9, and Microsoft moved into the $25 million facility on February 26, 1986, several weeks before the company’s initial public offering. Microsoft initially moved onto the grounds of the campus on February 26, 1986, shortly before going public on March 13. The Microsoft campus is the corporate headquarters of Microsoft Corporation, located in Redmond, Washington, United States, a part of the Seattle metropolitan area. The Microsoft 365 Copilot app brings together your favorite apps in one intuitive platform that keeps your data secure with enterprise data protection. Create equitable learning environments that help students develop knowledge with familiar apps essential to both academic and future career success.
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For its part, Microsoft has secured almost 900,000 square feet of office space in downtown Redmond. In all, Microsoft left behind almost 2 million square feet of office space in Bellevue among leases that expired between 2023 and 2025. Soon, Microsoft employees will once again be working out of corporate offices near her restaurant, and that could make a real difference if those tech workers stop in. Microsoft’s decision to vacate 750,000 square feet of office space between The Bravern Towers was the hardest hit to the Eastside market last year, according to Broderick Group.
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Broderick Group said several lease transactions are close to the finish line in early 2026 as tenant demand keeps ticking up. Artificial intelligence giant OpenAI snapped up several floors that previously belonged to Microsoft in downtown Bellevue. The company’s recent renewals don’t represent the gains that the Eastside real estate market is hoping for amid a postpandemic recovery, but they do keep two giant properties out of a saturated market.
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The Microsoft 365 Copilot app empowers your employees to do their best work with Copilot in the apps they use daily. Hiring may also increase as small businesses try to match the new levels of consumer demand. “Microsoft considers various real estate strategies to ensure our physical footprint aligns with local business priorities and policies, including our latest flexible work expectations.
The move may also bring new vitality to Redmond’s business districts, leading to fewer vacant storefronts and more sales, business, and occupation taxes for the city. There can be more foot traffic and spending at restaurants, cafés, and coffee shops as office workers take lunch breaks or visit shopping districts before or after their shifts. Down the street at Palmer’s, owner Thomas Wilhite said Microsoft workers had been a mainstay of his business, especially at a previous restaurant he owned. Thousands of employees are due back at Microsoft next month as the company scales back remote work. Microsoft’s workforce peaked in Bellevue in 2021, with about 9,300 employees, according to city financial reports.
The campus is located on both sides of the State Route 520 freeway, which connects it to the cities of Bellevue and Seattle, as well as downtown Redmond. A set of 875 wells to harness geothermal energy will provide heating and cooling to buildings on the campus through 220 miles (350 km) of water pipes that comprise a geoexchange system. A 1,100-foot (340 m) pedestrian bridge connects the new campus buildings to the Redmond Technology light rail station and the West Campus area.
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The Redmond-based tech giant confirmed to The Seattle Times this week that it renewed the lease for its almost 400,000-square-foot office at Redmond Town Center, a shopping complex that includes office buildings. The following month, Microsoft announced that it intended to expand its Redmond campus by 1,100,000 square feet (100,000 m2) for $1 billion and said that this would create space for between 7,000 and 15,000 new employees over the following three years. The first major expansion of the campus came in 1992, bringing the total amount of office space to 1.7 million square feet (160,000 m2) across 260 acres (110 ha) of land. The headquarters has undergone multiple expansions since its establishment and is presently estimated to encompass over 8 million square feet (740,000 m2) of office space and has over 50,000 employees. That includes renewing a lease on two buildings in Redmond town center and reoccupying another two office complexes at Millennium Corporate Park. The expanded campus, scheduled to be completed in 2025, will have 17 office buildings and four floors of underground parking with capacity for 6,500 vehicles.
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The City of Redmond had also approved a rezone in February that year to raise the height limit for buildings on the campus from six stories to ten. In 2001, Microsoft announced plans for a satellite campus in Issaquah for 12,000 workers, but later reduced its scope. A moratorium on development was implemented by the city government of Redmond, which prevented further campus expansion.
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A spokesperson for Microsoft emailed a statement further explaining the decisions behind the commercial leases. “Because sometimes they come here to have a meeting, are part of the lunch crowd, or bring a party from their work, and I would like to get a bigger space,” Likitjesada said. Sip Thai Zooom serves up unique cuisine in the heart of downtown Redmond, and Joon Likitjesada, the owner, goes the extra distance to attract her clientele. Some shop owners are eager to expand their customer base, potentially, and city officials see it as a key step to maintaining a vibrant commercial district.
The service launched in September 2007 and grew into a network of 19 routes within two years; the buses have on-board Wi-Fi and are operated by MV Transportation. The campus is served by Seattle-area buses operated by Sound Transit and King County Metro that serve stops on State Route 520 and a central hub at Redmond Technology station. The two sides of the campus are connected by a series of pedestrian and vehicle overpasses that cross State Route 520. The garage sits below a pedestrianized environment between the buildings, which are part of five “villages”. A set of treehouses was built on the campus in 2017 by American treehouse builder Pete Nelson, as well as an elevated outdoor lounge named the Crow’s Nest. A pond between the original buildings was nicknamed “Lake Bill” for Bill Gates and was used for post-project celebrations, namely, managers being thrown in after a successful launch.
A report from local brokerage Broderick Group listed it as the largest lease transaction on the Eastside for the final three months of 2025. Video showing the concept of the future campus. The Connector system is allowed to use King County Metro bus stops in Seattle as part of a permit system for corporate shuttles established by the city government in 2017. The shuttles were targeted in early 2014 as a symbol of gentrification in a similar fashion to the San Francisco tech bus protests that same year.
Microsoft also announced its intention to contain most of its future growth within Redmond, while retaining some offices in Downtown Bellevue and its Factoria district. The campus was originally leased to Microsoft from the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association, a pension fund manager, until it was bought back in 1992. Building 92 on the campus contains a visitor center (with interactive exhibits) and a store that is open to the public.
