‘Written Seattle off’: Jake questions whether Amazon has quietly given up on the city after skipping public safety letter

Amazon plans to vacate another South Lake Union office, continuing its retreat from leased space across Seattle.

Jake Skorheim, co-host of “The Jake and Spike Show” on KIRO Newsradio, said Amazon’s latest office departure from Seattle, combined with the company’s absence from a major 35-business coalition letter demanding a public safety overhaul from City Hall, suggests the tech giant may have already moved on from the city and stopped fighting for it altogether.

“Amazon is not investing and growing in the downtown anymore. They’re just not that interested,” Jake said. “They’re investing in Bellevue, in the Eastside. They’re investing in other states. They’re doing a lot of data center building in other places, but they’re not going to do that in Washington.”

Jake says Amazon’s silence on the safety letter speaks volumes

Last week, 35 companies and organizations, including Microsoft, Starbucks, Costco, Alaska Airlines and Zillow, signed a letter calling on Mayor Katie Wilson and the City Council to deliver a 100-day public safety action plan. The effort was led by the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, Challenge Seattle and the Washington Roundtable.

Amazon was not among them.

“They’re one of the largest employers in the state. If not the biggest employer in Seattle, 50,000 employees downtown,” Jake said. “I wonder if Amazon has just kind of written Seattle off.”

He said the company’s calculus is straightforward.

“The writing’s on the wall. You guys are going to head tax us to death. We can go somewhere else where they’re actually giving us tax breaks to invest in those communities, and we’re going to build big businesses there, and we’re going to pay really good jobs, and then they’re not going to drain us for every cent that we make,” Jake said.

Amazon plans to let its lease lapse at 428 Westlake Ave. N., an 81,000-square-foot building in the heart of its South Lake Union campus. The company has given up more than 1 million square feet of Seattle office space since 2020 and has shed more than 7,200 local employees through layoffs since 2022.

Redfin data shows residents are looking for the exit, too

Fill-in co-host Greg Tomlin connected Amazon’s retreat to a broader trend: residents are also eyeing the door.

“There seems to be an alarming trend here, without a doubt, of some sort of exodus going on with Seattle, whether it be businesses or residents even looking for greener pastures,” Greg said.

He pointed to Redfin data showing Seattle had the second-highest net outflow of home searchers in the country in the first quarter of 2026, trailing only New York City.

“Which means we might even be number one in per capita,” Greg said.

Jake said the combined picture of businesses leaving and residents searching elsewhere raises a question he put to listeners: What would you do to save Seattle?

“Is that even possible?” Jake said. “Maybe Seattle has just reached its peak.”

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Listen to “The Jake and Spike Show” weekdays from noon to 3 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio 97.3