Building Permits

Existing improvements saw a 60% spike in 2015-16, followed by new commercial buildings growing 32% in 2018. The area of continued development has been residential seeing its highest peak in 2020 at a rate of nearly 10 times the activity reaching a high of 548 new starts. Despite a slowing down of activity over the last two years, largely from increased costs in interest rates, inflation and supply chain challenges, the drop is marginal compared to that of the Great Recession of 2008. Overall, Redmond is still seeing steady and sustainable growth.

According to Compass Commercial, this year, the vacancy rate for Redmond industrial averaged 1.54%, and developers can’t deliver enough space to meet the surging demand. Since 2018, the market has received 265,478 square feet of speculative industrial space, with an additional 135,588 square feet of space in the pipeline (under construction, permitted and planned). Those projects combined will increase Redmond’s industrial inventory by nearly 28%.  Developers and businesses have looked to the City of Redmond, where land is in greater supply, and the cost of housing is substantially more affordable.