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

March 2024 (February 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.

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Visitors
Total monthly visitors since 2019

Nearly 1.9 million visitors came downtown in February 2024, representing a 2% increase from the previous year. The total number of February visitors was 87% of the number seen in February 2020.

Source: Placer.ai
Return to Office
Average daily worker foot traffic (Monday–Friday)

In February, downtown averaged more than 85,000 daily workers — a 16% increase from February 2023. Worker foot traffic in February was at 57% compared to the same period in 2020.

Source: Placer.ai. Note: The November 2023 daily average excludes Nov. 22–24 due to the Thanksgiving holiday.
Hotel Room Demand
Monthly hotel rooms sold compared to 2019

Downtown hotels saw a nearly 20% increase year-over-year in rooms sold, or more than 250,000 room nights. This represented 83% of demand in February 2020.

Sources: Visit Seattle, STR
Occupied Apartment Units

In February, the number of occupied apartment units was nearly 57,000. There are around 6,000 residential units currently under construction with around 1,100 units delivered so far this year.

Source: CoStar

Of Note in Downtown

Comic book shape with exclamation point

$26.5Meconomic impact

Visit Seattle estimates the 2024 Emerald City Comic Con generated more than $26 million in local economic impact. The annual convention welcomed an estimated 85,000 attendees over a four-day period.

White line icon: downtown ambassador cleaning up trash

47%increase in trash collected

The DSA/MID Clean Team collected 112,545 gallons of trash in February — that’s 47.5% more than was collected in February 2023.

Icon police badge - white outline

14%decline in violent offenses

There were 316 violent crimes in the downtown core in 2023 — a nearly 14% decline from 2022. The downtown core consists of SPD beats M1, M2 and M3.

Coming Up in Downtown

Food Truck Fest in Westlake Park

Food Truck Fest takes over Westlake Park on Thursday, March 21. Coinciding with the first full day of the men’s NCAA Basketball Tournament, DSA/MID will bring in Pop-A-Shot basketball, five food trucks and a DJ. This just might be the best lunch break of the year.

Baseball fans
Credit: Ben VanHouten / Seattle Mariners

The Seattle Mariners open the 2024 season with a three-game homestand against the Boston Red Sox. More than 40,000 fans will flock to T-Mobile Park on Thursday, March 28. DSA/MID will be hosting a Mariners Opening Day Celebration from 5–7 p.m. in Occidental Square. There will be giveaways featuring Mariners merchandise, food trucks and more.

Credit: @moshitea and @rintaichou

Sakura-Con — the oldest and most well-attended anime convention in the Pacific Northwest — descends upon downtown Friday, March 29. More than 25,000 fans of animation and culture are expected over the three-day event.

COVID-19 Downtown Recovery Weekly Snapshot

These charts show weekly statistics from March 2020 through the most recent week available. To indicate the level of recovery, data is displayed as a percent of the same metric for the comparable week of 2019.

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 the downtown neighborhoods with the heaviest concentration of office space.*
  • Total visitors includes those who do not live or work downtown. It does not include international visitors.
  • 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.