SEATTLE – Safeco Corp., one of the nation’s largest property and casualty insurers, announced plans Wednesday to move its corporate headquarters and Northwest regional offices into two buildings in downtown Seattle.
Employees at the company’s current headquarters, in the University District northeast of downtown, will begin moving into about 284,000 square feet of leased office space at the former Seafirst Building on Fourth Avenue next year, Safeco said.
The building is managed by Hines, a multinational real estate development and management firm based in Houston. The lease gives Safeco full naming rights for both the interior and exterior of the building.
Once occupied, the new headquarters building will be renamed Safeco Plaza and will be home to as many as 1,100 Safeco employees, the company said.
Safeco, which owns the naming rights to Safeco Field where the Seattle Mariners have played since it opened in 1999, intends to place its University District building complex on the market in early June.
Meanwhile, Safeco expects the sale of its campus in suburban Redmond to software giant Microsoft Corp. to close by the end of the month.
Safeco plans to move as many as 800 Redmond-based employees in its Northwest regional offices into about 140,000 square feet of leased office space in a downtown building at Second Avenue and Seneca Street.
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