With its lease of the Troy Block, Amazon could reportedly end up filling 10 million square feet of Seattle office space.
And while Amazon employees already swarm South Lake Union, the company will have room for many thousands more.
When we dropped by the "Now Make Me A Sandwich" food truck near Amazon, owner Ryan O'Toole told us about the impact on his business.
“I would say it probably doubled, (with) the amount of people down here.”
Amazon is snagging so much space, the amount of employees here could reach more than 70,000 according to the Puget Sound Business Journal.
That will add more pressure to nearby Mercer Street -- already congested during the ever-expanding rush hour.
“Mercer's designed to handle the growth. It's in our plans,” said Seattle Transportation Director Scott Kubly
And everyone who moves here will put upward pressure on the rising price of housing.
We sat down with Zillow's Senior Director of Economic Research Svenja Gudell.
“Currently rents are rising 8 percent, which is much higher than what you would see normally,” said Gudell.
“The good news is that Seattle's actually doing quite a good job of building more housing units and meeting that demand,” she said
And with the memory of the Boeing bust of the 1970s in mind, Mayor Ed Murray told us he’s guarding against any Amazon downturn.
“It's one of the reasons that we stepped up and worked with Weyerhaeuser to move their headquarters to Seattle,” Murray said. “Facebook is expanding its largest workforce outside of the Bay Area in Seattle.
The first building in the Troy Block is scheduled to open in mid-2016.
KIRO
