On its growing Redmond campus, Microsoft is currently excavating a giant pit for an underground parking garage with the capacity for some 5,000 vehicles, which would make it one of the largest underground parking structures in the United States. The underground garage, on the west side of Highway 520 near the Northeast 40th Street exit, is scheduled to be completed by mid-2008.
Microsoft now has nearly 29,000 parking spaces spread across its corporate campus. In 2006, the company announced a three-year plan to expand the campus by about one-third, or 3.1 million square feet, at a cost of roughly $1.3 billion. Parking at Microsoft has become such a hassle that the company began offering valet service for employees working in some buildings, as a temporary measure during construction. While some of the campus expansion is to accommodate employment growth, it"s also meant to alleviate existing crowding in buildings and parking lots, according to Microsoft spokesman Lou Gellos.