Microsoft Corp. has signed a lease for all the class A office space available at the Bravern, a 6-million-square-foot, mixed-use project in Bellevue, Wash. The software behemoth will occupy 740,000 square feet in two office towers and will anchor the five-acre Bravern along with Neiman Marcus, which chose the project for its first store in the Pacific Northwest.
More than half of Microsoft's 4,000 employees will work at the Bravern, which is being developed by Bellevue, Wash.-based Schnitzer Northwest LLC. With Microsoft and Neiman Marcus committed to the Bravern, Schnitzer Northwest has expanded the retail portion from 133,000 square feet to more than 300,000 square feet, says senior investment director Tom Woodworth. The expanded retail component will house a health club, spa and at least three restaurants.
The Bravern also features two 30-story residential towers with 450 upscale condominiums. The project is already under construction at the corner of 112th Avenue and NE 8th Street. “This is the biggest project we've ever done, and it's our foray into retail,” Woodworth says. “Landing Neiman Marcus and Microsoft as our anchors is a great way to get started.”