It’s been less than half a year since 222 Fifth opened on the former McDonald’s property near Seattle’s Space Needle, but the 10-story life science property has already attracted six startup tenants. And the owners are betting an on-site incubator program will help draw even more tenants to the property.
The opening of the nearly 200,000-square-foot speculative project in October came amid an improving environment for the life science sector. Though vacancies rose to 19.7% nationally last quarter, it was the smallest quarterly increase since 2022, according to CBRE‘s end-of-year market report. In Seattle, the vacancy rate in the fourth quarter was 16.9%, with net absorption across the Seattle-Bothell market at 7,170 square feet.
“Tenant interest by both established and start-up companies increased in Q4 and should result in a number of lease signings in 2025,” the report said.