‘Bizarre’: Curley warns Katie Wilson’s office vacancy tax could backfire

With Seattle having one of the highest office vacancy rates among major U.S. cities, Mayor Katie Wilson proposed a solution — taxing the empty commercial space to incentivize owners to fill it.

Wilson campaigned on a proposal for a “well-designed vacancy tax or fine” on empty commercial spaces. Business groups have expressed concern that her progressive tax ideas could make the problem worse, not better, potentially accelerating the shift of jobs to suburbs like Bellevue.

KIRO host John Curley agrees with these concerns.

“That’s their plan: If you can’t rent it, you better drop the price. If you don’t drop the price and get somebody in there, we’re going to fine you or tax you,” Curley said on “The John Curley Show.” “So here’s the guy that’s got the commercial building, billions of dollars tied up in the loans and everything. Nobody wants to come in, nobody wants to rent it. It’s just sitting there. It’s empty. So what does the city decide to do? Oh, I know how to solve that. Let’s increase the price of the guy who has to pay the bills every single month for the loan for the commercial building.

“I know how we can incentivize him. Don’t give him a tax break on it. Don’t give him some sort of incentive to get the thing rented,” Curley continued. “Fine them for every single month that the thing remains unoccupied. Bizarre.”

The Downtown Seattle Association (DSA), alongside other business groups, additionally warned that additional taxes on struggling commercial property owners could backfire, pushing more companies across Lake Washington to Bellevue and worsening the very vacancies Wilson aims to address.

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Listen to John Curley weekday afternoons from 3 – 7 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

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