by Paris Apodaca
Seattle has the nation’s highest office vacancy rate, a new report found.
Downtown office vacancy has climbed to 36.5%, above the national average of roughly 23% and higher than other major cities, according to the Q1 2026 report from commercial real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield.
Meanwhile, in Q1 2025, Seattle’s vacancy rate was only 31.2%, according to Colliers.
The report comes just months after socialist Democratic Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson took office following a campaign centered on progressive tax proposals — including a tax on vacant commercial properties.
Wilson publicly wants to remove guns, eliminate private grocery stores and established 50 more homeless shelters to hide the city’s large homeless population during the World Cup season.
The left-wing mayor also created barriers throughout a known prostitution zone, off of Aurora, to respond to shooting and sex trafficking.
The Downtown Seattle Association claims that Seattle’s payroll tax had a part to play in the high office vacancy rates.
Wilson’s office, The Downtown Seattle Association, and The Washington Policy center, each did not immediately respond to The Daily Caller News Foundation’s requests for comments.
In the past year, major businesses such as Meta and Amazon vacated 325,000 square feet of office space in downtown Seattle, the report reads. Starbucks, a longtime Seattle institution, abandoned its headquarters for Florida earlier this year.
On top of this, Starbucks announced it will open a new office in Nashville, creating up to 2,000 jobs. Starbucks said it will be investing $100 million in the city.
Brian Niccol, Starbucks’ CEO, said of the move, “Nashville gives us an opportunity to support that growth with great talent and proximity to our growing number of coffeehouses and suppliers across the Southeast. This city offers a deep, diverse talent pool and a strong sense of community, making Nashville another ideal place to invest for the long term.”
Tennessee will be giving Starbucks $30 million in tax subsidies.
If the policy trend continues, Seattle could observe an increase of buildings that cannot produce enough revenue to support themselves, commercial real estate experts told the Seattle Times.
“With office vacancies still climbing rather than stabilizing, the city’s commercial core faces an uncertain future,” Ari Hoffman, a Seattle-based conservative talk host for KVI wrote.
“Every empty floor not only represents lost rent for building owners, but also fewer downtown workers supporting restaurants, retailers, transit systems, and the city’s tax base,” Hoffman concluded.
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Paris Apodaca is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation. Zachery Schmidt is the digital editor of The Star News Network and contributed to this story.
