Economic Revitalization
Tracking downtown revitalization
Since the onset of COVID-19, DSA has been tracking the impact on our local economy. As downtown bounces back, we continue to follow dozens of metrics to trace the path to full economic recovery. A few of these metrics are below.
Downtown Revitalization Dashboard
September 2025 (August data)
Downtown Seattle was the first American urban center to experience the impacts of COVID-19, enduring a sudden economic downturn. As downtown continues to evolve, DSA will publish a monthly Revitalization Dashboard examining key metrics. The data sets provide a comparison point to the same time period in 2019. Additionally, the dashboard will feature notable stories that provide context regarding downtown’s renewal and reemergence.
Please credit the Downtown Seattle Association Revitalization Dashboard for use of charts, data and images on this page.
Unique monthly visitors compared to 2019
More than 3.2 million unique visitors came downtown in August 2025. This represents 99% of the visitors seen in August 2019.
Average weekday worker foot traffic
In August, downtown’s worker foot traffic was 64% of August 2019’s daily average. This figure represents nearly 150,000 daily worker visits, a 4% increase from August 2024.
Monthly hotel rooms sold compared to 2019
There were more than 404,000 downtown hotel rooms sold in August 2025. This figure represents 100% of the demand in August 2019, and a similar level of demand compared to August 2024.
Quarterly
In August, the number of occupied apartment units downtown continued growing, rising to nearly 60,700. This represents a 4% increase compared to Q3 2024 and a 21% increase compared to Q3 2019.
Of Note in Downtown
Peak summer season foot traffic was strong in downtown Seattle. Between June 1 and Aug. 31, average daily foot traffic increased 6% year-over-year to nearly 430,000 visits per day. Downtown visitors were up 7%. This metric includes downtown residents, workers and visitors.
More than 16,000 fans attended a combined 19 shows during DSA’s Downtown Summer Sounds concert series. Westlake Park, in particular, was rocking with an average of over 2,300 attendees per show.
The DSA/MID Clean Team has removed 35,628 graffiti tags or stickers from public infrastructure and private property through the first eight months of 2025. That’s 1,100 more removals than the same period in 2024.
Coming Up in Downtown
Tony Award-winning SUFFS takes the stage at The 5th Avenue Theatre with a two-week run Sept. 12–27. Direct from Broadway, this production tells the story of American women who triumphantly fought for the right to vote.
Seattle’s original night market will welcome thousands to the Chinatown-International District on Saturday, Sept. 27. Street vendors, food trucks and cultural performances produce a vibrant celebration of the C-ID neighborhood.
The Pacific Northwest Ballet raises the curtain on the 2025–26 season with George Balanchine’s Jewels. PNB calls it a “dazzling homage to three golden ages of music and dance” and performances at McCaw Hall run Sept. 25–Oct. 5.
Notes on Sources
Downtown foot traffic data are provided by Placer.ai and are based on cell phone location data. Each person is counted once per day. International visitors are not included. Subsets of this data in the charts are as follows:
- Office worker presence is estimated based on visits by workers who were present between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. on weekdays in downtown Seattle.*
- Hotel data are based on monthly reports from STR, provided by Visit Seattle.
- Apartment occupancy data are from CoStar. This is reported quarterly but the current quarter data are updated in real-time as new information is added to the database.
- Domestic visitors counts those who do not live or work downtown.
- Total foot traffic includes all visits to downtown by domestic visitors, residents and workers.
- Pike Place Market visitors includes domestic visitors who do not live or work at the Pike Place Market.
*Note that workers who have not visited their work site in the past 90 days are classified as “visitors” until they are regularly visiting their work site at least three times in a one-week period.