Dive Brief:

• Skanska has announced its investment of $392 million in a yet-to-be-constructed Seattle office building. The company is serving as both developer and builder on the 38-story 2 + U office building.
• Skanska's U.S. construction division, Skanska USA, will build the 686,000-square-foot structure, the contract for which is valued at $228 million.
• The building will include 667,000 square feet of office space and approximately 18,000 square feet of retail, with nearly 24,000 square feet of public space creating an "urban village." The Class A office building is in close proximity to the city's waterfront and Pike Place Market and is expected to be complete in 2019.

Dive Insight:

Seattle is currently one of the hottest markets for both commercial and residential development, in part because companies like Facebook, Amazon and Google are setting up shop there in order to access the ready pool of young, qualified workers. By the third quarter of 2018, Facebook will have taken over two office buildings, allowing the company to grow its Seattle workforce from 2,000 to 4,000. These offices are currently under construction, and the company will lease them when complete.

Google has made a deal with the same developer, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen's Vulcan Real Estate, for a 600,000-square-foot office nearby. The company's new complex is expected to be complete in 2019, and Google has committed to 14-16-year leases for the space.

Seattle has also drawn foreign investors who are finding more reasonable deals than in more expensive cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York. Since 2015, non-U.S. companies have bought up more than $4 billion of commercial property, with Chinese companies leading the way.

Last year, the the Downtown Seattle Association announced that the city had 65 major projects and a total $3.5 billion worth of construction underway in 2016, topping Seattle's previous record of 50 major projects in 2014 and setting a new record since tracking began in 2005.