Report: Over half of all downtown Seattle workers have returned to the office midweek

KIRO 7 News Staff
·2 min read
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New data indicates that over half of all workers based on downtown Seattle have returned to the office for most of the work week.

Food trucks, games, music welcome workers back to downtown Seattle

That’s according to data from Placer.ai, released by the Downtown Seattle Association this week. According to those numbers, 51% of employees based out of the downtown area are now working in person between Tuesday and Thursday, as well as 52% of workers in the Denny Triangle area. This represents the highest mark since the start of the pandemic.

“Foot traffic is on the rise as well,” the DSA said in a news release, with downtown seeing 92% of it 2019 volumes in May of this year.

“We’re excited to welcome thousands of office workers back to downtown, where DSA/MID teams are out every day ensuring a safe and clean city core filled with activity,” DSA President and CEO Jon Scholes said. “Street-level businesses are bustling, and we’ve set the stage for a great summer season of events.”

The DSA also reported “strong improvement” for hotels in the area, which reached 94% of monthly rooms sold compared to 2019. Apartments saw an even bigger jump, reaching over 56,000 occupied units for the first time dating back to 2015.

Downtown safety still a concern

In a separate survey, the DSA asked likely voters a handful of questions surrounding safety in the downtown core. Of the 500 people polled, 84% said that revitalizing downtown should be a “top priority” for Seattle city leaders, while 53% said they felt “pessimistic” on the city’s progress toward that goal.

Respondents were split on how Mayor Bruce Harrell has done on downtown recovery -- 31% felt “positive” about the mayor’s efforts, 31% were “negative,” and 38% said they didn’t know. City council fared significantly worse in the survey, with 66% saying they felt negatively about the council’s efforts related to downtown.

For public safety, 77% said agreed that “Seattle’s hands-off approach to people using illegal drugs in public is contributing to rampant street crime.”