The Industrial District is the principal industrial area of Seattle. It is bounded on the west by the Duwamish Waterway and Elliott Bay, beyond which lies Delridge of West Seattle, on the east by Interstate 5, beyond which lies Beacon Hill, on the north by S King and S Dearborn Streets, beyond which lie Pioneer Square and southwest International District of Downtown, and on the south by the main lines of the BNSF Railway and Union Pacific Railroad, or about S Lucille Street, beyond which is Georgetown. SoDo is the name of the northwest portion of the neighborhood, named for its being South of Downtown. SoDo is the location of Safeco Field, home of the Seattle Mariners. It is also home to CenturyLink Field (formally Qwest Field), home of the Seattle Seahawks and Seattle Sounders FC.
The Industrial District may also be defined by land use, with the primarily residential and open space Delridge district extending west from W Marginal Way SW and south of SW Spokane Street, and with the heavy industrial-zoned lower Duwamish Waterway east of Marginal and north of Spokane as part of the Industrial District.
Most of the Industrial District is built on what were once the mudflats and lowlands of Elliott Bay and the Duwamish estuary, dredged, straightened, and filled 1902 and 1907.
Principal arterials are 1st and 4th avenues S, the Alaskan Way Viaduct, East Marginal and Airport Ways S (north- and southbound), S Spokane, the Spokane Street Viaduct, West Seattle Bridge, and S Royal Brougham Way (east- and westbound). Minor arterials are 6th Avenue S, S Holgate and S Lander streets, and S Industrial Way.
In 1905 the Seattle Box Company relocated to the southeast corner of 4th Avenue S and S Spokane Street, and became one of the first residents of the Industrial District. Starbucks moved its world headquarters to the Industrial District in 1997, occupying the 1912 building constructed for Sears, Roebuck Company as a catalog distribution center.
Presently, the area is seen by city developers as an ideal zone in which to expand non-industrial businesses and residential land use south of Downtown Seattle.