Firm to sell its new headquarters

Outdoor retailer REI Co-op embraces shift to remote work

Outdoor retailer REI Coop said Wednesday that it plans to sell its newly finished corporate campus in Bellevue, Wash., another sign of how quickly the coronavirus pandemic is accelerating the shift to remote work and prompting a major impact on commercial real estate.

The retailer, which announced it was building the 8-acre campus in 2016 and began construction in 2018, said that its headquarters would ultimately be made up of multiple “satellite” locations across the Seattle area and that it would “lean into remote working as an engrained, supported and normalized model” that could also allow employees to work outside the region.

“The dramatic events of 2020 have challenged us to re-examine and rethink every aspect of our business and many of the assumptions of the past.

That includes where and how we work,” REI President and Chief Executive Officer Eric Artz said in a video call with employees, according to a company statement.

Employees who would have worked at the campus, which media reports had called the “most outdoorsy HQ ever” and “like summer camp for grown-ups” for its rooftop terraces, courtyard full of native plants and large sliding doors to the outside, had not yet taken occupancy.

Like many office-based employees, they began working from home in March and had been expected to move midsummer.

Some commercial real estate investors believe other companies could follow suit as employers grow comfortable with employee productivity and the ability to collaborate while working from home, all while allowing major cost savings.

“The owners of big corporate buildings are really starting to see that their employees really don’t want to come to work in the office anymore,” said Rick Mirza, a commercial real estate investor and CEO of Daulat, a private-equity firm. “That feeling that we work somewhere, and it’s this whole big-tribe mentality — [some are] realizing that’s not that necessary.”

REI is structured as a member-owned cooperative and releases financial data on an annual basis.

Steele would not share specifics on the price that REI sought for the wholly owned land and buildings but said it expected to see a return on the investment.