The Bravern

By Brian H. Liou · Drafted with Claude · Published 25 October 2026

Open-air shopping courts below two apartment towers and two former Microsoft office towers.

455: rental apartments in the two residential towers
7: fashion houses in the open-air courts
$27,200: a month for the four-bedroom penthouse advertised in October
750,000: sq ft of former Microsoft offices, a sale pending

The Bravern's stone shopfronts and entrance arch along the street, towers above — The Shops at The Bravern along the street, 25 October 2026. Plates are blurred.

An outdoor retail place sits below the towers

The Shops at The Bravern uses 11111 NE Eighth Street as its address, near 112th Avenue NE. Shopping levels connect stores, restaurants and arrival courts below the towers.

A stone arch carved The Shops at The Bravern, glass towers above — The entrance arch, 25 October 2026.

Pale stone shop buildings at a street corner with two residential towers rising behind — The shops at the corner, the residential towers behind. Plates are blurred.

Two tall residential towers above the low stone shop buildings — Both residential towers above the shops. Passers-by and plates are blurred.

An open court of arched stone storefronts with a glass tower above — The court below the towers.

Hermès on the left and Louis Vuitton across the court, an office tower above — Hermès and Louis Vuitton facing across the court, 25 October 2026. People on the balcony are blurred.

A historical street-level view of Louis Vuitton and neighboring luxury storefronts below the Bravern towers — The luxury storefronts on 20 March 2010. This historical view shows the architecture, not today’s tenant inventory. Faces have AI-assisted privacy blurring.

An open-air shopping walkway lined with Louis Vuitton and Hermès storefronts, a white office tower signed Microsoft at its base rising at the end of the walk — A shopping court below the Bravern 1 office tower, with Louis Vuitton and Hermès along the walk, photographed by December 2010. It does not show today’s tenants. A shopper’s face is blurred.

A white office tower and a taller green-glass residential tower rising behind low shop buildings signed Neiman Marcus and The Shops at The Bravern, seen across a surface parking lot — Bravern 2 and the North Tower above the low shop buildings, seen from a neighbouring parking garage by December 2010. The low building signed Neiman Marcus, the original anchor, is right of centre. This view does not show current conditions.

A pale stone office tower above a street lined with parked cars, an arcaded Hermès building at its foot on the left — Bravern 2 from the street on 22 December 2025, with Hermès’s arcaded front at left. The most recent openly licensed view found.

Yellow follows the mapped Bravern site. Blue buildings are offices; green towers are homes. Shops and courts occupy the lower levels around the towers. Meydenbauer Center is outside the site. OpenStreetMap outlines read 19 October 2026; orientation, not surveyed ownership boundaries. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors; tiles by OpenFreeMap. Blue: the 2 Line.

The three parts share a site, but have separate operators and entrances. Schnitzer West developed them as one mixed-use project.

Part of the Bravern	What brings people here	Public operator or leasing route	What the source establishes
The Shops	Boutiques, dining and services around the courts	Shops directory; Ashkenazy leasing contact	Published listings and retail contact
Signature Residences	Apartments in two towers, with residents' facilities	Windsor Communities	Residential operator's plans and terms
Office Commons	Two former Microsoft towers marketed to tenants	Broderick Group's Bravern 1 listing	Advertised space, not measured occupancy or proof of a sale

Luxury shops surround the open courts

The courts hold seven fashion houses, three watch and jewellery shops, and eyewear and Leica cameras.

The courts’ 13 shops, from the retail listings checked 19 October 2026. Rolex is verified separately from the center’s directory.
Fashion houses	Bottega Veneta, Gucci, Hermès, Louis Vuitton, Moncler, Prada, Tod’s
Watches and jewellery	Rolex Boutique Bucherer, Omega, Holly Zhang Pearl Gallery
Eyewear and cameras	Eye Society, Oliver Peoples, Leica

Two-storey Louis Vuitton and Prada storefronts side by side — Louis Vuitton and Prada, 25 October 2026. Figures inside are blurred.

A Louis Vuitton window display of rows of toy cars around a handbag — A Louis Vuitton window the same afternoon.

Restaurants, tea and dessert

Chinese hotpot. The Dolar Shop serves individual pots and has a sauce bar. Its two-floor restaurant includes a bar/lounge and private rooms.
Tea. HEYTEA is a shorter stop between shops or before dinner.
Japanese desserts. LeTAO is a bakery café serving cheesecakes, including the Fromage Double.
Steak and drinks. John Howie Steak keeps its own dinner, bar and happy-hour hours; from the garage, take the Amethyst or Amber elevators. Whiskey by John Howie is in the same dining directory.

Tall wooden doors under a stone lintel lettered John Howie Steak — John Howie Steak's entrance, 25 October 2026.

The courts also contain a salon, a gym and a real-estate office. The source appendix keeps their names and the complete dated directory, including all five dining listings.

The business mix changes. Downtown Bellevue Network reported the opening of Rolex Boutique Bucherer Bellevue on 8 October 2026. Official Rolex and boutique listings confirm its address at Suite 162, even though it was absent from the center’s directory when checked on 19 October.

Living above the shops

The two residential towers contain 455 homes, according to the developer’s project page. They opened as apartments after a change from the original condominium plans.

The homes are operated as rental apartments, with their own entrances and resident facilities. Windsor's residential site carries current floor plans and access terms for the community at 688 110th Avenue NE, from studios to four-bedroom homes including penthouses. The operator lists a spa among the residents' amenities; it is separate from the public shopping courts.

What renting here costs

Windsor’s published plan sizes and starting prices give a rough sense of the range:

Sizes of the floor plans Windsor publishes, read 28 October 2026, and its advertised starting monthly leasing prices, checked 19 October 2026 and rounded to the nearest $100. Penthouses have three or four bedrooms. Windsor’s floor plans.
Home type	Plan sizes	Starting monthly price
Studio	597–853 sq ft	About $2,700
One bedroom	613–1,300 sq ft	About $4,000
Two bedrooms	1,222–2,156 sq ft	About $5,300
Penthouse	3,013–5,898 sq ft	About $27,200

These starting offers were checked on 19 October, not quoted for a particular lease. Usage-based and one-time charges can add to the monthly total; check Windsor for today's terms. The table remains a historical snapshot, rather than a current quote.

North 3301: four bedrooms and private terraces

At the upper end, Windsor advertised North 3301 at about $27,200 a month on 19 October 2026 for a twelve-month term, advertised available from 24 December. That availability date is not a confirmed lease start.

Interior space: 5,898 sq ft
Private outdoor space: 1,747 sq ft
Advertised monthly price: About $27,200

Windsor’s penthouse overview film

Windsor Communities’ penthouse overview. Operator marketing film; the interiors and views are not identified here as North 3301.

The operator's North 3301 floor plan separates 5,898 interior square feet from 1,747 square feet of terraces and balconies. It labels four bedrooms, four-and-a-half baths, a den and family room. The drawing is illustrative; actual size and features may vary. Room details and tour links are retained in the method notes.

The Bravern South Tower photographed from street level in July 2022 — The South Tower on 30 July 2022. The residential towers are a separate component of the mixed-use development.

Two tall green-glass residential towers rising behind the Meydenbauer Center convention hall at a street intersection under a clear sky — Both residential towers behind Meydenbauer Center on 17 October 2018. Meydenbauer is a separate building outside the Bravern site. This view does not show current conditions.

A residential amenity space and a shopping courtyard also serve different people. The developer’s sale announcement described a private amenity plaza connecting the residences. An address above the stores should not be read as an invitation to use the residents’ facilities.

The four towers have separate histories

The Bravern began as one mixed-use project, but its shops, homes and offices were sold separately. Schnitzer West's 2013 announcement says the homes were repositioned from condominiums to apartments in 2010. Its account traces the first three sales; county records document the later office sale.

Date	Documented change
September 2010	Office Commons sold to Principal Real Estate Investors.
March 2012	The Shops sold to Ashkenazy Acquisition Corporation.
October 2013	Signature Residences sold, completing the original developer’s component sales.
19 December 2019	King County’s 2020 office assessment report records QSuper’s acquisition of the office property from Principal.

Today's leasing routes are separate too, as the component table above shows. Those published contacts do not establish every present-day legal owner or investment interest.

Two towers held Microsoft’s offices

Microsoft's two former office towers account for about 750,000 square feet of the Bravern. Its developer says the leases ran from 2009 through 2025; the space is now marketed separately.

A Bravern office tower at night with a lit Microsoft sign at the top and rows of lit windows, a residential tower beside it — A Bravern office tower with Microsoft’s lit sign in July 2009. It shows the years of Microsoft’s leases, not the towers today.

Milestone	Dated evidence	Limit
Purchase agreement	Connect CRE, 20 July 2026: Schnitzer West agreement for offices and garage; expected fall closing	Shops and residences excluded; an agreement is not a completed sale
Closing	Not confirmed in this edition	The July report does not establish a later conveyance
Leasing	Broderick's Bravern 1 advertisement, checked 28 October, at 11155 NE Eighth Street	An advertised offer, not a measured vacancy rate or sale record

What happens next

The shops and homes are settled; the offices are not. Microsoft's leases ended in 2025, Bravern 1 is advertised for lease, and Schnitzer West's agreement to buy the offices and garage had not been confirmed closed when this edition was checked. Whoever buys and fills about 750,000 square feet upstairs will shape the weekday crowd in the courts below.

How this was checked

Checks against this finding

A dated directory, with a documented supplement. The table below records the Shops’ live rendered directory read on 19 October 2026. It excludes the separate retail management office and retains the directory’s categories and spellings. The Rolex entry comes from the official retailer and boutique sites because it was absent from the directory snapshot. This is a record of published business listings, not an observed-open count, vacancy rate or inventory of every office and residential occupant.

Business listings checked 19 October 2026. Directory categories and spellings are retained. Rolex is confirmed separately; this is not a vacancy or footfall survey.
Business and source	Category	Listing status
HEYTEA	Dine	Listed in operator directory
John Howie Steak	Dine	Listed in operator directory
LeTAO	Dine	Listed in operator directory
The Dolar Shop	Dine	Listed in operator directory
Whiskey by John Howie	Dine	Listed in operator directory
Bottega Veneta	Shops	Listed in operator directory
David Lawrence	Shops	Listed in operator directory, but closed 15 April 2026 (owners retired)
Eye Society	Shops	Listed in operator directory
Gucci	Shops	Listed in operator directory
Hermés	Shops	Listed in operator directory
Holly Zhang Pearl Gallery	Shops	Listed in operator directory
Leica	Shops	Listed in operator directory
Louis Vuitton	Shops	Listed in operator directory
Moncler	Shops	Listed in operator directory
Oliver Peoples	Shops	Listed in operator directory
Omega	Shops	Listed in operator directory
Prada	Shops	Listed in operator directory
Tod’s	Shops	Listed in operator directory
Compass	Amenities	Listed in operator directory
Gene Juarez Salon & Spa	Amenities	Listed in operator directory
Life Time Athletic	Amenities	Listed in operator directory
Rolex Boutique Bucherer Bellevue	Shops	Separately confirmed by official boutique; absent from directory snapshot

History and current operations are distinguished. The 2010, 2012 and 2013 sales come from the original developer’s dated announcement. Current websites identify leasing or operating contacts; they do not establish the complete beneficial ownership of the block. The July 2026 office agreement is reported as an agreement with an expected closing, not a verified completed sale. The county’s 2020 report dates the preceding office sale to 19 December 2019; the report year should not be substituted for its transaction date.

Leasing sources need an address check. Broderick’s general Bravern project page displayed a conflicting 360 106th Avenue NE address and construction summary when read. The article instead links its property-specific Bravern 1 listing at 11155 NE Eighth Street. Neither page establishes that a sale closed.

Map extent. The yellow outline follows OpenStreetMap’s mapped Bravern commercial site, excluding Meydenbauer Center. It helps orient a visit; it does not establish ownership or a surveyed boundary. Blue uses the mapped office buildings; green uses the residential tower parts. North and South residential identities were checked against the operator’s floor-plan site inset. Shops and courts extend around and below those tower locations.

Housing prices and media. Prices were read from Windsor’s live rendered residential page on 19 October 2026, rather than a search-engine price cache. The table rounds those advertised starting amounts to the nearest $100. The current operator page can show different starting prices; the dated 19 October snapshot and North 3301 example have not been refreshed. Its monthly total includes base rent, mandatory and selected optional charges; usage-based, annual and one-time costs can be additional. Quotes depend on the home, lease term, move-in date and choices. Interior photographs and tours are linked at the operator’s site; they are marketing material. The embedded overview is published by Windsor Communities on YouTube and also embedded on its own penthouse page; it is not identified as a film of North 3301. The linked 3D-tour player was not independently tested.

North 3301’s live list and detail views differed by $3 when checked; both round to the $27,200 used here. Its detail view, penthouse page and PDF also give conflicting floor labels, so this edition omits a floor number. The layout description comes from the rendered PDF. It shows separate living and dining areas, a kitchen island and pantry, a library, perimeter bedrooms, laundry and storage. The penthouse page and linked 3D tour and unit listing are routes to the operator's current material, not a reverified offer. Interior and outdoor areas are kept separate, and no specific landmark view is claimed from a visit.

Photographs and experience. Historical images are dated in their captions. Brian's 25 October 2026 photographs show the shopping courts and entrances, including John Howie Steak; they do not establish occupancy or restaurant quality. The profile describes the published record rather than a firsthand review of the homes, shops or food.

Privacy edits are recorded with the photographs. The 2010 storefront has AI-assisted face blurring; its architecture and signs were compared with the original without claiming pixel-identical preservation. Another 2010 court image has a shopper's face blurred. Two historical images have only their December 2010 upload dates, so their captions place them no later than that month.

Sources (16)

Sources

Core documentary and leasing sources were read on 19 October 2026. Brian's photographs were taken on 25 October. The office project record, July agreement report, retail leasing contact, residential page, North 3301 plan and Bravern 1 advertisement were rechecked on 28 October; unit-level prices and availability were not reverified.

The Shops’ directory, read in its live rendered form; visitor information; retail leasing contact.
Official Rolex boutique.
Rolex retailer locator.
Reported Rolex opening, 9 October 2026.
Schnitzer West’s Office Commons project record and Signature Residences project record.
Schnitzer West’s sale announcement, 15 October 2013.
Windsor Communities’ current residential page.
Apartment gallery and virtual tours, floor plans and penthouses.
North 3301 floor plan, unit listing and Windsor’s penthouse overview film.
Connect CRE’s office-agreement report, 20 July 2026.
Broderick Group’s Bravern 1 listing.
King County’s 2020 Major Offices assessment report, printed page 59.
The Dolar Shop, HEYTEA and LeTAO.
John Howie Steak’s directions and schedules.
OpenStreetMap Bravern site extent.
Historical storefront photograph by Debs (ò‿ó)♪, 20 March 2010, CC BY 2.0, with AI-assisted privacy blurring.

Photo credits

The luxury storefronts on 20 March 2010: Debs (ò‿ó)♪, 2010, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr, modified.
A shopping court below the Bravern 1 office tower: Payton Chung, 2010, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons, modified.
Bravern 2 and the North Tower above the low shop buildings: Payton Chung, 2010, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
The South Tower on 30 July 2022: Xnatedawgx, 2022, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
A Bravern office tower with Microsoft’s lit sign in July 2009: Yatharth, 2009, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Updates and corrections.

This page has been corrected. What changed

The Bravern

An outdoor retail place sits below the towers