Global accounting and consulting firm Deloitte has moved its Seattle office and opened a new office in Bellevue.
The offices opened in June, said Edward Thomas, managing partner at the Seattle office. The firm's old Seattle office, at 925 Fourth Ave. downtown, had more space than the new offices combined, but Thomas said the new workspaces provide a more collaborative feel.
"We were thinking about how we were going to use space in the future, and really much more thought around individual space to space that would be a place to gather," Thomas said. "We could bring clients in. We could bring the community in. We could bring our people in."
The new Seattle office is about 40,000 square feet between its two floors, Thomas said, and the firm has about 1,500 total employees in the Seattle area. Deloitte's new office, located in the former Federal Reserve building at 1015 Second Ave., is just blocks from its old office. The firm also has another Seattle office just down the street, at the Exchange Building at 821 Second Ave.
The Bellevue office, meanwhile, is located in the Spring District, and it's the first Deloitte Bellevue office in decades, Thomas said. He added that the Bellevue office acts as a hub for geographic convenience, and there are no set assignments for which employees must work in which office.
As for why the firm didn't just remodel its old space, Thomas said that type of retrofitting is difficult. Deloitte doesn't mandate how often employees come into the office but tries to incentivize in-person work. Many of Deloitte's newer employees had never worked in the office before, Thomas said, and the new space created a certain buzz around returning to work.
"Our hope is that people will use (the office) and get to know one another, build teams," Thomas said. "I'm hopeful people will find a way in here."
Deloitte's U.S. headquarters is in New York City. The firm offers services in marketing, audit, payroll and technology, among others. The firm is in over 150 countries and territories, and has over 330,000 employees.
