March 31, 2026

Tishman Speyer isn't quitting on big Bellevue office plan

Rendering by Steelblue [enlarge]

Looking northwest, Main is in the foreground, with the light-rail station at lower left.

Other developers, having paid big bucks for office development sites, have shifted their plans to multifamily. Not Tishman Speyer.

It was five years ago when it spent $152 million for the Sheraton Bellevue property. That hotel and other structures at 100 112th Ave. N.E. were razed in 2023. With architect Henning Larsen Design, about 1.1 million square feet of office space is proposed.

Now we're going to see some construction activity on those 5 acres of rubble, just west of the freeway and next to East Main Station.

But it's not what you're thinking. Alliance Residential filed plans this month to use the Tishman site for its Broadstone 200 apartments, to rise next door to the north. Construction staging, in other words, plus trailers and parking.

And Sierra Construction also filed plans to use a different portion of that expanse for more construction staging — to build the nearby Versant apartments for High Street Residential. (That's replacing the John L. Scott building on Main.) Both jobs will last two-plus years, so the Tishman property will be encumbered for a good part of that time.

Partly for that reason, Tishman has asked the city to extend its permits — approved in 2023 — and has resubmitted its SEPA and design review applications. Having approved the plan before, the city noted last week that a new SEPA determination of non-significance is expected. Again.

Tishman's permit dilemma stems from both the pandemic-dented office market and the project's long history. It originated under prior owner PMF Investments, after it purchased the Sheraton in 2016 for over $42 million. Belle Vista was the old moniker, which the city still uses.

So some of the permits, from the city's perspective, have expired or are close to their expiration date. Thus the new permit push from Tishman. Its architect writes in recent filings that, in a separate city process, its master development plan has been vested into 2033, and its design review approval into 2029.

Tishman can thus wait for the Alliance and Sierra crews to wrap their work, then possibly break ground in that calendar span on its phased four-tower project … if the office market recovers.

There will be an April 9 public presentation for what's also dubbed 100th & Main. The public comment period for the new SEPA application ends April 8.

Tishman, based in New York, is a large international developer. Three years ago, Turner did the demo. As of now, Broderick Group is still offering the offices under the old Merge moniker (aka Merge on Main).