REI to sell new headquarters as remote working becomes norm
Rather than a single location, REI’s headquarters would span?multiple?locations across the region, and remote will become the norm for model?for headquarters employees.
It says this will offer flexibility for more employees to live outside of the region and shrink the co-op’s carbon footprint.
REI CEO Eric Artz said: “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.
“As a result, our new experience of “headquarters” will be very different than the one we imagined more than four years ago.”
REI originally announced plans for the new headquarters in 2016, to be built on an 8-acre site in a developing, transit-oriented neighborhood called the Spring District. Construction began in 2018 for an intended mid-summer 2020 move-in date.
“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 co-op was among the first retailers to proactively close all its retail stores in early March and one of the last to fully reopen, under stringent health and safety guidelines. The co-op undertook a number of cash preservation measures throughout the spring, including tighter inventory management, elective pay cuts by Artz and the board of directors, reductions in headcount and focusing around a streamlined set of priorities. These measures both stabilized the co-op, and allowed REI to invest in customer and staff-facing programs and innovations, as the co-op community adapted to a “new normal.".
The sale of the Spring District campus would enable important investments in customer innovations, REI’s network of non-profit partners, and the co-op’s carbon goals.
Mr Artz told employees: “This year has shown us our home is not a building. Our home is wherever we find ourselves doing our best work, pursuing our outdoor passions, serving our communities. Serving each other. That is what we will build around as we move forward—and as we accelerate into what’s next.”
