Eddie Bauer Gets New Headquarters -- Center Reflects Retailer's Outdoorsy Image

The company that outfits America with goose-down vests and flannel sheets now has a headquarters to match its image and its ever-expanding needs.

Eddie Bauer will move today into a 146,000-square-foot corporate center, the hub of a company that now tops $1 billion in annual sales.

Eddie Bauer has been in Redmond's Overlake area since 1971, and

its new headquarters is just feet from its old headquarters, a building that will be leveled and replaced as part of the center's second phase of construction.

Company officials say Eddie Bauer's expansion across the nation and into Japan, Germany and Canada has left employees of the corporate headquarters crowded and scattered among several buildings.

"We want to bring everyone home," said Frank Jennings, director of facilities. "We've grown so rapidly that employees are in 13 different buildings in a two-mile radius."

Eddie Bauer has grown at a heady pace since its 1988 purchase by Spiegel, expanding to 400 stores from 61 in just seven years. Sales have more than quadrupled since the purchase, Jennings said.

The company's new three-story building on the edge of a small forest will include a mock storefront and offices replicating store interiors.

The center has been designated a "green building" by the Environmental Protection Agency, in part for its extensive recycling program and reliance on natural light.

"We wanted to create this feeling of openness," Jennings said, pointing to the center's sea of windows. "We work indoors, but we can feel like we're part of the outdoors."

Among the center's other amenities: a full kitchen to test Eddie Bauer cookware; rows of washing machines and driers to determine clothing shrinkage and endurance; an outdoor sprinkler system tied into a weather station to prevent watering when it rains; motion detectors in bathrooms to turn out lights when no one is using them; and removable carpet tiles that will be examined nightly for latte stains.

An additional six acres was purchased for the new corporate center, Jennings said. Upon completion, the company headquarters will include 315,000 square feet in six buildings on 25 acres.

Company officials are not disclosing the cost of construction.