Kevin Wallace is the president of Wallace Properties and oversees all development and acquisition activity for the company. He is also responsible for all legal matters for the company’s three divisions: Brokerage, Property and Asset Management and Investment/Development. Bellevue Lifestyle asked Kevin to share his thoughts about Amazon’s positive impact on the city of Bellevue.
Were it not for Amazon, Bellevue would be the city that lost Microsoft, Expedia and Boeing in five years. In 2018, Microsoft, Expedia and Boeing ranked 1st, 3rd and 7th on the list of Bellevue’s ten largest employers, and collectively provided 12,000 jobs. Today, they are gone. Amazon wasn’t on the top ten list in 2018, and just six years later has created 12,000 jobs in Bellevue on its own -- by far the city’s largest employer.
Amazon is on a path to more than double that headcount to 25,000. The company currently occupies, or is in the process of building, twelve high-rise towers totaling more than six million square feet of office space in downtown Bellevue. When these buildings are completed, Amazon will hold more than a third of the office space in the CBD – quite a feat for a company that wasn’t here in 2015.
It’s hard to overstate the positive impact Amazon’s growth has had, and will have, on our city.
· Construction of the Amazon buildings bolstered Bellevue’s tax revenues and provided thousands of construction jobs during the economic downtown caused by Covid-19.
· As the buildings open, their ground floor spaces offer numerous public amenities – shops, restaurants, entertainment facilities (ever played bocce?), childcare facilities, art sculptures, public gathering spaces and urban greenscape.
· Bellevue’s job creation will not end with Amazon’s 25,000. Major employers like Amazon induce additional jobs as the company contracts with other local companies and its employees buy local goods and services. In addition, Amazon’s presence attracts other companies through a clustering effect. Bellevue is already seeing new job growth from companies, large and small, leasing office space to be near Amazon and the talented people it employs.
This incredible growth is not without its challenges. Rather than turn a blind eye to the increase in traffic, housing costs and costs of living, Amazon has embraced the challenges, assembled an all-star team of government affairs and community relations experts, and executed strategies to mitigate its impacts in each of these areas.
· Transportation. Amazon’s government affairs team works with Bellevue and the Bellevue Chamber to advocate for highway and transit improvements. Its shuttle services provide another mode of transportation for the city, keeping hundreds of cars off the road and reducing traffic congestion in the process. One day soon these shuttles may be autonomous, using technology created by an Amazon subsidiary called Zoox. For cycling, the company is playing a key role in the visionary expansion of Bellevue’s regional bike network, donating $7.5 million to complete Eastrail and $2.5 million to start the design of the Grand Connection Crossing, connecting Eastrail to the heart of downtown.
· Housing. Since the launch of the Amazon Housing Equity Fund, the company has committed $670 million across the Puget Sound region to help make over 7,200 affordable homes available – of which $270 million was committed on the Eastside to help create or preserve over 1,700 units of affordable homes in Bellevue, Bothell, and Kirkland.
· Cost of Living. In partnership with Bellevue LifeSpring, Amazon created the Right Now Needs Fund, and through the program has donated $3 million to help address Eastside students’ basic and immediate needs like food, shelter, clothing, and school supplies so students arrive at school prepared to learn.
These are just a few major examples. In many of Bellevue’s most critical human services organizations, Amazon and its staff are major donors of time, talent and treasure. Hopelink, Mary’s Place, KidVantage, Youth Eastside Services, Eastside Community Development Fund, Bellevue Fire Foundation and many, many more.
The growth and prosperity downtown Bellevue is experiencing from Amazon’s growth is an incredible opportunity for all of us who live and work in the city. It will not be without its challenges, but Bellevue is fortunate this growth is led by such an amazing corporate partner. I guess being the city that lost Microsoft, Expedia and Boeing isn’t so bad after all.