State Farm Deal Rumors Continue...

UPDATED

The Tacoma News Tribune is reporting that State Farm is in the final stages of negotiating a lease for office space in downtown Tacoma. The insurance company is growing, and looking for office space to house about 2,000 new employees.

We heard rumors of the possibility of State Farm taking some of downtown Tacoma’s prime Class A office space off the market back in January. To meet the need, that would mean filling all of the Russell Building, and then some.

Some good signs that the deal could be in the works include a negotiated early termination of Russell’s lease on the space effective March 1. The company originally held the lease through November of this year. The termination means that Russell no longer stands in the way of the building owners finding new tenants.

We have to say, the undeniable boost to Tacoma’s economy a couple thousand new workers in downtown would bring is appealing. Is it too good to be true?

UPDATE: The TNT has published a memo from State Farm to employees confirming that it will be moving some of its operations to Tacoma. The memo identifies the Claims Initial Loss Reporting and Auto Express operations as moving to Tacoma, with a target date of late 2013. The memo doesn’t name the number of employees or specify details of negotiations. Read the full memo from The News Tribune.