Seattle Culture
Amazon Numbers Still Aren’t in, But Downtown is Again on the Upswing
The Downtown Seattle Association notes persistent gains in foot traffic
By Rob Smith January 16, 2025
It’s still too early to weigh the ramifications of Amazon’s return-to-work mandate, but another report from the Downtown Seattle Association finds that more workers are returning to the city’s core on a daily basis.
The organization’s Downtown Revitalization Dashboard shows a 5% increase in December compared to the same month in 2023. In fact, every month last year showed an increase from the same month the year before.
Downtown foot traffic, however, was still only 58% of the average in December 2019. That number is expected to rise because of Amazon’s decision to force all 55,000 tech and corporate workers in Seattle to return to the office five days a week starting this month.
Beyond just office workers, more than 2.4 million unique visitors came downtown in December, a 6% increase from 2023. The heart of downtown — the Pike-Pine corridor — is also on the upswing, with a 7% jump from last year.
The association says it will have data reflecting Amazon’s Denny Regrade/South Lake Union foot traffic soon.
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