T Mobile and Sprint have spent $26.5 Billion to make the marriage between the two companies happen, which they feel will create a combined increase in value for the new company of $150 Billion with only costs of $15 Billion to integrate the systems of the two companies. The cost of the remodeling and renovation of the Bellevue office headquarters is projected at $160 Million.
As commercial real estate professionals, we are assaulted by the astounding numbers of the millions of square feet of office space being absorbed on the “Eastside” (Bellevue, Issaquah, Kirkland and Redmond) by Amazon, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and the like, but they are not the only game in town. We have other big kids swimming in the pond and T Mobile is an example. 7,807 of their 51,787 employees are in Washington State, and, excluding retail employees, the headquarters increased 56% in 2018 to 6,200 employees. The impact of this type of corporate headquarters reverberates through multi-family, retail, and other real estate areas other than office leasing. We need to look behind the spotlights to fully understand these impacts.
