Starbucks appears to be considering a significant relocation from Seattle to Tennessee, a move larger than previously anticipated, fueling rumors that the coffee chain might be planning to leave its troubled hometown entirely.
Recently, the company announced its intention to shift its logistics operations from its base in the Pacific Northwest to Nashville, impacting about 300 employees.
However, insiders familiar with the property search revealed to CoStar that Starbucks is now on the lookout for a facility that can accommodate over 2,000 staff members.
This development has intensified speculation that the coffee mogul is contemplating moving its headquarters out of Seattle, home to 3,000 corporate employees and the location of Starbucks’s inaugural café, established in 1971.
Reports indicate that Starbucks has enlisted the help of CBRE, the leading commercial real estate services and investment firm globally, to spearhead the search.
Sources suggest that the company is considering leasing the newly completed Peabody Union complex in downtown Nashville. This venue offers nearly 300,000 square feet of space and has yet to be occupied since its completion last year.
Starbucks has vowed to maintain its headquarters in Seattle but its plans for Nashville have led to questions about what its long-term goals really are.
The move comes as Seattle remains mired in crime and vagrancy under the leadership of its new ultra-woke Democrat mayor Katie Wilson, who issued a police order that allows drug users to avoid prosecution for using illegal substances in the streets.
Starbucks founder Howard Schultz, who closed five profitable Seattle stores four years ago citing rising crime, also recently announced his plans to retire to Florida as Washington state passed its so-called millionaires income tax bill.
Starbucks has been secretly searching for a massive office in Nashville, Tennessee that can accommodate upward of 2,000 employees, insiders claim (file photo)
The company is headquartered in Seattle, which has recently grown a reputation for vagrancy and open air drug markets. Shown is a homeless encampment in front of Seattle’s Space Needle and Museum of Pop Culture in January 2026
Starbucks laid off more than 1,100 corporate employees globally last year, including 900 in Seattle and nearby Kent, Washington.
It is also shuttering 1 percent of its shops, including more than 430 across North American locations and its Seattle Reserve Roasteries.
CEO Brian Niccol, in a September letter to employees, said the layoffs and closures were aimed at ‘putting our resources closest to the customer so we can create great coffeehouses, offer world-class customer service, and grow the business.’
He added that more coffeehouses would open in 2026.
But it does not appear that those efforts are focused on the Pacific Northwest, with Starbucks saying this month that it is opening its Nashville office to support ‘rising customer demand, in particular, the southeast region of the US.’
The new office will work closely with the Seattle headquarters, officials said, fueling rumors that Starbucks is gradually planning to quit the city where it started.
Seattle has grown a reputation for vagrancy and open air drug markets as the city’s soft-on-crime policies fail to tackle the homeless crisis and fentanyl epidemic.
The city’s homeless population has surged by a staggering 88 percent in the past 10 years and people can be seen blatantly abusing drugs in the streets.
Starbucks laid off more than 1,100 corporate employees globally last year. CEO Brian Niccol, seen in June 2025, said the layoffs and closures were aimed in ‘putting our resources closest to the customer so we can create great coffeehouses, offer world-class customer service, and grow the business’
Seattle’s famous Pike Place food market, where the first-ever Starbucks shop sits, is devoid of vagrants and drug abusers – but you only have to walk a few blocks before you’re surrounded by squalor and despair
Drug paraphernalia is seen on the sidewalk of an encampment in Seattle in January this year
Wilson, 43, and progressive city attorney Erika Evans have reportedly plotted to avoid prosecuting most public drugs use cases.
A memo filed by Evans on January 1 says anyone arrested for doing drugs in public must be referred to the city’s ‘LEAD’ diversion program, which tries to offer addicts treatment.
Evans, who is also a Democrat, added that only users whose circumstances are very ‘acute or problematic’ should be referred to her office. Prosecutors would then consult with LEAD officers before making a final charging decision.
Although Schultz neglected to address Seattle’s lawlessness in his retirement announcement last week, his disdain for the city’s soft-on-crime policies is no secret.
When Starbucks closed 16 stores across the country in 2022, Schultz blamed woke city leaders for forcing the company to shutter operations.
The businessman accused lawmakers in Seattle, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Portland and Washington DC of ‘abdicating their responsibility’ to fight crime in their cities.
He alleged the stores had become ‘unsafe’ amid attacks on staff members and reports of drug use at the popular cafes.
Schultz, at the time, warned it was ‘just the beginning’ of store closures and said there ‘would be many more’ to come with homelessness and crime on the rise.
Starbucks founder Howard Schultz and his wife Sheri, together in 2012, are retiring to Miami, Florida after spending nearly 50 years in Seattle
The original Starbucks in the Pike Place Market in Seattle is a popular tourist attraction. A rotating list of musicians performed for the crowds outside the shop in August 2014
The Starbucks founder, 72, and his wife Sheri, 71, relocated to Miami earlier this year after spending nearly five decades in Seattle. He cited closeness to their East Coast-based children and grandchildren as the reason for the move.
The couple have moved their private office to Miami but said the Schultz Family Foundation will continue to operate from Seattle under the leadership of Vivek Varma.
Sheri started the foundation in 1990 and Varma has served as CEO since July 2023.
Schultz, who according to Forbes is worth an estimated $4.3 billion, publicly announced his retirement plans the same day that Washington state passed its first-ever income tax.
The new levy goes into effect in 2029 and imposes a 9.9 percent tax on households earning more than $1 million annually.
Florida, however, is just one of eight US states that do not have a state personal income tax.
Tennessee also does not impose a personal income tax and generally offers a more competitive corporate tax structure than Washington.
Starbucks did not immediately respond to the Daily Mail’s request for comment.
