In yet another sign of COVID-19’s disruptive impact on business, REI is abandoning its nearly completed corporate campus in Bellevue and spreading headquarters operations to multiple sites across the Seattle area.
The Kent-based outdoor retailer said it is in talks with “multiple interested parties” to sell the never-used 400,000-square-foot building and 8-acre campus. People familiar with the situation say one of those parties is Facebook, which has facilities in the same upscale multiuse development, known as the Spring District, where the REI headquarters is being built.
REI’s move, announced Wednesday morning, is one more striking example of how the pandemic is forcing companies to reassess where their employees work and how much real estate they need.
“The dramatic events of 2020 have challenged us to reexamine and rethink every aspect of our business and many of the assumptions of the past,” Eric Artz, president and CEO, told employees in a Wednesday morning video call.
