Gorgeous Pacific Northwest suburb is new tech boomtown... but it's very close to chaos-ridden Seattle
As chaotic protests continue to rattle Seattle, a popular suburb looks poised to overtake the city as the latest tech hub.
Situated on the shores of Lake Washington, Bellevue has already attracted the likes of TikTok, Robinhood, OpenAI and Amazon.
With its tranquil streets, reduced crime rate and top-of-the-line office space, it is no surprise that the population of 154,000 is expanding.
Meanwhile across the water, a series of rowdy anti-ICE protests this summer have plunged the city into chaos and led to threats from Donald Trump to send in the National Guard.
The city has also been dealing with rising homelessness in certain neighborhoods, which has given way to open air drug use in encampments.
The situation is only being aided by officials who hand out drug paraphernalia based on the theory that it reduces the risk of overdoses.
Rapper Big Sean even called out Seattle's downturn during a concert in August, saying it was as bad as his hometown of Detroit was when he was growing up.
The president suggested that Seattle could be used as a 'training ground' for troops, although this has been rejected by city officials.
Bellevue (foreground) is seen with Seattle and the Olympic mountains in the background
Pictured: A protestor stands in front of a burning dumpster during an anti-ICE demonstration in Seattle on June 11, 2025
Pictured: A homeless encampment outside an empty JoAnn Fabrics store in August 2025. The chain went out of business
Much of the shift eastward to Bellevue has occurred since the summer of 2020 when people seized a portion of the Seattle for nearly a month in protest over George Floyd's murder.
The area became known as the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ) and remained in place for a year before it was dissolved.
Since then, Bellevue has added nearly 3.9 million square feet of office space, whereas Seattle only gained 2.6 million square feet, according to Cushman & Wakefield.
Amazon, which retains its corporate headquarters in Seattle, has increased its workforce in Bellevue to 14,000. Virtually no one worked across the lake 10 years ago.
The company predicts that its Bellevue workforce will swell to 25,000 in the coming years.
Meta, too, saw the value in the area back in 2020, when it acquired a sprawling 400,000-square-foot campus previously owned by Recreational Equipment Inc.
Downtown Seattle meanwhile has an office vacancy rate of 34.6 percent, one of the highest readings in history and one of the highest among any city in the United States.
Peter Steinbrueck, an architect and former member of the Seattle City Council, told The Wall Street Journal that Seattle is no longer enjoying rabid economic growth.
Pictured: Needles and tin foil with fentanyl residue that was cleaned up in Seattle by a non profit organization on September 29, 2025
Pictured: Protestors confront TV reporters just outside the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone, an area in Seattle that was taken over by residents angry over the murder of George Floyd in the summer of 2020
Though Seattle still remains the more mature city, Bellevue is making strides to compete.
The East Link light rail line opened last year and has drastically reduced car congestion. The line has ten stops that run from Redmond to South Bellevue.
City officials say that this train line will be extended across Lake Washington in 2026, providing the first direct connection between the Seattle and Bellevue.
Seattle is also losing momentum because it raised taxes on businesses at the same time crime and homelessness were rising, experts said.
In 2019, Amazon began the process of shifting thousands of jobs to Bellevue.
The online retailer made the call after the Seattle City Council approved a 'head tax' of $275 per employee, which the company felt was a direct attack since it was the largest employer in the city.
The tax was quickly scrapped, but Amazon still moved anyway due to the break in trust.
'The company, I think, really took it personally,' Trevor Youngren, a Cushman & Wakefield managing director, told The Journal.
Pictured: Suburban homes line a hill in Bellevue during the autumn
At $64 per square foot, Bellevue office rents are now more expensive than Seattle's $51 per square foot.
Even in early 2018, downtown Seattle buildings were nearly on equal footing with its neighbor to the east.
However, not all of Seattle's woes can be attributed to bureaucratic decisions, as the tech sector has been slowing down.
Tens of thousands of tech workers have been laid off in the last several years in the Seattle area, and this trend has hit Bellevue hard as well.
About 15.5 percent of offices in Bellevue sit empty, amounting to a more than three-fold increase in the vacancy rate since 2019, according to Cushman & Wakefield.
But both cities are hoping that offices will recover as more companies return to a five-day in-person work week
