REI plans to put its brand-new headquarters up for sale

BELLEVUE, Wash. — Seattle-based REI Co-op announced Wednesday that it plans on selling its newly built Bellevue headquarters.

The company said rather than a single location, its headquarters would span over multiple locations across the Seattle area and the company would lean into remote-working for its headquarters employees.

“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.  That includes where and how we work,” said REI President and CEO Eric Artz, in a video call with employees today. “As a result, our new experience of “headquarters” will be very different than the one we imagined more than four years ago.”

The headquarters staff transitioned to nearly 100% remote working in early March.

"[This year] we learned that the more distributed way of working we previously thought untenable will instead unlock incredible potential," said Artz. "This will have immediate, positive impacts on our ability to attract and retain a diverse and highly skilled workforce, as we continue to navigate the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond."

The company started building its new headquarters in 2018 and had an intended mid-summer 2020 move-in date.

Cox Media Group