What WA City Has The Highest Percentage of Empty ‘Storefronts’ in the US?

It's not just big tech relocating, it's also smaller regional and mom-and-pop business as wel that's fleeing this city.

   National Real Estate Firm Releases New Data on Which Cites Have the Most Empty Storefronts/Office vacancies

A city's business Office occupancy rate is one of the major economic categories used to determine how healthy it is, and whether companies want to set up shop there.

 A new national study shows Seattle has the worst business office occupancy rate in the US, out of 92 who were studied.

    A Downtown Seattle 'Skyscraper' Office Building Just Sold for a Paltry $12 Million

   A 20-story office building across from Amazon's headquarters downtown just sold in Seattle fo 87 percent less than its value 7 years ago.  The Plaza 600 building had been valued at $97 million, but now has been purchased for peanuts.

While reporting this shocking news, it was also revealed that a study done by Cushman and Wakefield, a major national commerciial real estate firm based in Chicago, has done a study about business occupancy rates in 92 major US Cities.

 National Vacancy is at 20 Percent and Dropping, But Not Seattle

Cushman and Wakefield found that while the national rate is slowly but steadily improving, Seattle is going in the opposite direction.  Downtown Office vacancy rates have hit 35.8 percent, and the citywide rate is 32.7. That's worst in the nation.

Also, sources reports the Downtown area of Seattle lost 13,000 jobs in 2025.

The Cushman and Wakefield study said even if every pre-pandemic client came back, it would take and estimated 16 years to 're-fill' the Downtown business district.