Amazon To Move Thousands Of Top Jobs To Bellevue: Report

BELLEVUE, WA — Bellevue will be home to some of Amazon's top leaders by 2023, according to a GeekWire report. The company will move its worldwide operations team, bringing potentially thousands of Amazon jobs across Lake Washington.

GeekWire obtained an email from Amazon Senior Vice President Dave Clark describing the move. Amazon has confirmed the authenticity of that email.

"I’m excited to share the news that we’re planning to migrate worldwide operations to Bellevue starting this year. This move gives room to grow while maintaining the campus feel that we’ve come to love around South Lake Union," Clark wrote according to GeekWire.

The plan to move jobs out of South Lake Union comes at the end of a tense year between Seattle's biggest employer and local leaders.

Last spring, Amazon opposed the employee hours tax, also called the head tax. Amazon threatened to pull out of planned office space in the Rainier Square, which is under construction along 4th Avenue.

The Seattle City Council repealed the head tax in June, but Amazon still announced in February that it would sublease its 30 floors of Rainier Square office space.

In 2018, Amazon finalized its HQ2 search, picking locations in New York City and the Washington, D.C., area — a further indication that Seattle was becoming less central to the company's operations.

In a statement, Bellevue Mayor John Chelminiak welcomed Amazon "home" to Bellevue.

"We’re excited by today’s announcement that Amazon plans to expand its presence in Bellevue. As a community we’ve worked hard to anticipate this type of positive growth downtown, and Amazon is a natural fit. It’s also critical that these types of jobs stay in the region. Bellevue values our business community, and we look forward to working with the company as their transition progresses," he said.

There are still more than 45,000 Amazon jobs in Seattle, the company has said.