Facebook Buys REI’s Headquarters in $390M Sale
Last month REI opted to shift to a more distributed model and decided to sell its newly-completed corporate campus.
BELLEVUE, WA—Facebook has purchased REI’s newly-completed 400,000-square foot corporate campus in the Spring District submarket for $390 million.
Facebook’s acquisition also included approximately 6 acres of land. Site developer Wright Runstad & Co. and Shorenstein Properties purchased an undeveloped 2-acre portion of the property. Facebook is paying $367.6 million for the headquarters, according to the Wall Street Journal, with the 2-acre portion bringing the total sale for REI to $390 million.
REI announced its plan to pursue a sale of the Bellevue campus and shift to a more distributed work model last month. It is among those companies now pursuing a hub-and-spoke corporate structure model, with multiple satellite locations spanning across the region. REI also said, when it made this announcement, that it will lean into remote working as well.
Amid the pandemic, a number of companies have announced such a shift, including Facebook itself. Earlier this year after COVID-19 began to first spread, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that he expects half of the company’s employees to be permanently working from home within a decade. Yet the company, like other tech conglomerates, continues to expand its real estate footprint. As one example, the social networking giant recently leased 730,000 square feet on the west side of Penn Station in Manhattan.