As prosperity began to return in the 1980s , the city was stunned by the Wah Mee massacre in 1983 , when 13 people were killed in an illegal gambling club in the Seattle Chinatown-International District . Beginning with Microsoft 's 1979 move from Albuquerque , New Mexico , to nearby Bellevue , Washington , Seattle and its suburbs became home to a number of technology companies including Amazon.com , F5 Networks , RealNetworks , Nintendo of America , McCaw Cellular ( now part of AT&T Mobility ) , VoiceStream ( now T-Mobile ) , and biomedical corporations such as HeartStream ( later purchased by Philips ) , Heart Technologies ( later purchased by Boston Scientific ) , Physio-Control ( later purchased by Medtronic ) , ZymoGenetics , ICOS ( later purchased by Eli Lilly and Company ) and Immunex ( later purchased by Amgen ) . This success brought an influx of new residents with a population increase within city limits of almost 50,000 between 1990 and 2000 , and saw Seattle 's real estate become some of the most expensive in the country . In 1993 , the movie '' Sleepless in Seattle '' brought the city further national attention . The dot-com boom caused a great frenzy among the technology companies in Seattle but the bubble ended in early 2001
Wah Mee massacre
Wah Mee massacre
Seattle