Seattle is now leading the nation on a list that no city wants to top. The office vacancy rate in downtown Seattle has climbed to 36.5 percent, which is now the highest of any major city in the United States. The figure underscores how far the city's core has fallen from its pre pandemic peak.
The emptying of downtown has come alongside a steep loss of jobs. Since 2020, downtown Seattle has lost around 30,000 jobs. That was the same year the city passed its payroll tax, a measure that targets large companies with employees making high salaries.
According to the Downtown Seattle Association, the city's record business taxes are a major factor behind both the job losses and the high vacancy rate. The group has been vocal about the pressures facing employers and the knock on effects for the wider downtown economy.
The debate comes as Mayor Katie Wilson weighs new taxes to close a budget gap of nearly half a billion dollars over the next three years. Among the options on the table is an expansion of the payroll tax, sometimes referred to as the Jumpstart tax, a prospect that has drawn sharp criticism from business advocates.
The association's president, John Scholes, argued that raising taxes would be the wrong move and would push more jobs outside the city. Instead, he said, the answer is to grow the tax base by making Seattle a more attractive and easier place to open a business, a restaurant or a retail outlet, and to spend within the city's means.
Scholes pointed to the scale of the problem, noting that nearly 20 million square feet of office space now sits vacant downtown. He said the value of those buildings has fallen to about half of what it was four or five years ago, warning that as building values drop, more of the property tax burden shifts onto residents.