Digital third-party travel agency Booking.com is in the process of renovating an office space in downtown Grand Rapids, Crain’s Grand Rapids Business has learned. 

The Amsterdam-based company is renovating half of the fifth floor of 99 Monroe Ave. NW for its offices, according to plans filed with the city on March 19. 

Booking.com is leasing the space from building owner Vision Real Estate Investment Inc., said Matthew Cornillie, a senior project manager at CBRE who helped broker the lease agreement. 

Grand Rapids-based Carbon Six Construction is contracted to renovate the 5,479-square-foot office, and St. Louis-Mo.-based HOK is designing the space. The suite previously housed a wealth management firm. 

Booking.com previously operated a call center in Wyoming outside of Grand Rapids that was acquired in 2022 by Luxembourg-based Majorel. The Wyoming call center, which employed 226 people, was among 12 acquired from Booking.com at the time as the company reeled from pandemic-related travel slowdowns.

A Booking.com representative said approximately 50 employees currently at the Wyoming location will relocate to downtown “later this summer.”

The buildout cost at 99 Monroe is estimated to be $450,000, and will include an open workspace, enclosed offices, accessory meeting rooms and a break room, according to project plans filed with the city. 

99 Monroe is a 12-story office building that was constructed in 1983 and renovated in 2014 by its previous owner, Franklin Partners. Vision Real Estate acquired the property from Franklin Partners in 2016 for nearly $32 million, according to property records.

Vision Real Estate currently has four office suites for lease in the building listed on Commercial Exchange, totaling more than 20,000 square feet. 

Though it’s unclear how many Booking.com employees would be housed there, the project would be a welcome boost for a downtown office market still working its way back from heightened vacancy rates during the pandemic.

Office vacancy in downtown Grand Rapids was at 8.6% at the end of the fourth quarter of 2023, down from the 10% vacancy rate from the previous quarter, according to the latest report from NAI Wisinski of West Michigan. 

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story has been corrected to say that approximately 50 Booking.com employees currently work in the Grand Rapids area.