Starbucks expects to have up to 2,000 workers in its new office in Nashville, Tennessee, over the next five years, the Seattle-based coffee company told employees Tuesday morning.

The details, also shared in a Tuesday news conference in Nashville, mark the first time Starbucks has publicly shared the size of the Tennessee operation.

At 2,000 employees, it would be more than half the head count at Starbucks' current headquarters in Seattle's Sodo neighborhood, where it has been since the early 1990s. The company has also committed to investing $100 million in Tennessee.

Despite the size of the Nashville office, which Starbucks announced in early March, the company reiterated on Tuesday that it’s not leaving Seattle.

Nashville will serve as a base for a planned retail expansion in the Southeast and as the new site for some Seattle-based operations, including its supply chain teams, the company has said. On Tuesday, Starbucks added that some of its technology teams would also go to Nashville.

“The Nashville office will be a complement to our global and North America headquarters in Seattle where we will maintain a large presence,” Sara Kelly, Starbucks’ head of human resources, said in Tuesday morning post on the company's news blog.

Starbucks’ CEO Brian Niccol made a similar announcement Tuesday morning at a news conference in Nashville near the six-story, 250,000-square-foot Peabody Union office tower that Starbucks is leasing.

State officials, including Gov. Bill Lee, touted the Starbucks office as a major win for Tennessee, which has used tax breaks and an image as a low-tax business friendly climate to recruit employers from other states.

“We are proud to add Starbucks to the strong roster of brands that place their trust in our business climate and skilled workforce,” Lee said in a statement that was shared with media outlets Tuesday morning.

In addition to state tax breaks for bringing new jobs and investment, Starbucks also got a year’s rent free at its new office location, part of a 1.2-million square foot mixed-use development overlooking the Cumberland River near downtown Nashville.

Starbucks has characterized its Nashville expansion as part of a broader turnaround strategy under Niccol, who was hired in late 2024 to help the 55-year-old coffee pioneer revive lagging sales and profits.

That plan, dubbed “Back to Starbucks,” calls for heavy investment in retail operations, including hiring more staff, some store renovations and a simplified menu to cut customer wait times.

Niccol also wants to add thousands of new stores, including in the South and the Northeast, where Starbucks isn’t so prevalent.

“As Starbucks continues to expand across North America, Nashville gives us an opportunity to support that growth with great talent and proximity to our growing number of coffeehouses and suppliers across the Southeast, Niccol said in Tuesday's statement from state officials.

But Niccol is also pushing for major cost reductions, including $2 billion over the next few years. So far, that has meant closing hundreds of underperforming stores and several rounds of layoffs, with more cuts rumored as early as May.

It’s unclear how many of the 2,000 Nashville jobs will be roles currently based in Seattle. The company said many Nashville roles will be new jobs connected to future growth, while others will be jobs now handled in Seattle or by outside contractors and firms.

In her message to employees, Kelly noted that Nashville offered “a deep and growing talent pool in the region, notably in technology.”

Details around the size of the Nashville office may add anxiety for some of Starbucks’ employees as its Sodo headquarters.

Since the Nashville office was announced last month, some have expressed concerns that they would have to choose between moving to Nashville or leaving the company.

They will also revive questions about Starbucks' future in Seattle.

At his last job, as CEO of Chipotle, Niccol moved that company’s headquarters from Denver to Newport Beach, Calif., where he lived and where Starbucks initially let him work remotely, with fly-ins to Seattle on a company jet.

Niccol said soon after taking the Starbucks job that he wasn’t planning a similar move for the company’s Seattle headquarters.

But Niccol has since expressed frustration with Starbucks’ headquarters staff. Some longtime employees have said they think he might see moving some or all of the company’s corporate operation to Nashville as a way to shake up the company’s corporate culture.

Tuesday’s announcement will also likely add to a debate over the business climate in Washington and Seattle, where employers have seen a number of tax increases recently.

For example, by moving some teams and functions to Tennessee, Starbucks looks to avoid a recently enacted 6.5% state tax on IT services, though that tax is scheduled to expire in 2029.

Nashville isn’t the only other city Starbucks has considered.

In December, Starbucks briefly considered leasing most of a 21-story Bellevue, Washington, office tower large enough, in theory, for much of the Sodo staff, according to a former Starbucks executive and nearly a dozen Seattle-area real estate and civic leaders with direct or indirect knowledge of lease discussions.

Some observers say anti-business comments by city and state politicians have also pushed Starbucks to consider new digs.

It’s no coincidence, observers say, that Bellevue lease rumors surfaced soon after Seattle Mayor-elect Katie Wilson urged Seattleites to boycott Starbucks at a Nov. 13 union rally.

Starbucks has declined to comment about the Bellevue lease and insists it has no plans to leave its Sodo headquarters, where it has been since the 1990s, and which is still leased through 2038.

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