One of the most striking moves any enterprise made during the pandemic was REI’s decision to sell off a brand-new headquarters campus that had been scheduled to open in mid-2020. What was particularly bold was that the decision to sell the facility came less than half a year into the pandemic, in August 2020.
REI could have waited to see how the whole thing played out but instead acted quickly to move towards a hybrid model. In September 2020, REI announced the Bellevue, Wash. site’s sale to Facebook and stated that the $390 million purchased price “represents a positive return on the co-op’s investment in the property.”
