Rei Finds Space In Sumner For New Distribution Center

Recreational Equipment Inc. (REI) is moving its national distribution and mail-order center from Tukwila to a new industrial park in Sumner.

The retailer of outdoor clothing and equipment last week completed a deal to buy about 30 acres in Sumner Industrial Park from Thompson Properties.

REI will build a 469,550-square-foot warehouse with room to expand, said Michael Collins, REI public relations administrator. Completion is planned for early 1992.

Collins said the company spent two years searching for land to build a replacement for its 200,000-square-foot Tukwila center. The existing warehouse was getting too cramped and had no room to expand.

The Sumner site was chosen after a national search that also gave high ratings to Salt Lake City, Collins said. Shipping costs would have been lower in Salt Lake City, but REI executives wanted to keep their Northwest ties, he said. The company is headquartered in Kent and five of its 26 stores are in Washington state - four of them in the Puget Sound region.

``It's a little more out of the way, but it's still in the region,'' Collins said of the Sumner site.

Distribution to all REI stores will be centered at the new warehouse. The retailer's national mail-order telephone center also will be there.

Most of the 350 employees working in Tukwila have agreed to commute to Sumner when the new warehouse opens, Collins said.

The warehouse will be the first building in the Sumner Industrial Park, although there are other businesses in the area.