Microsoft bids for Eddie Bauer headquarters
Microsoft has offered to buy the longtime Redmond headquarters of outdoor-clothing retailer Eddie Bauer for $38 million, court records show.
The software giant last week filed a petition with U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of New York to purchase the land Eddie Bauer originally occupied more than three decades ago. The 20-acre tract, just west of Highway 520, is adjacent to Microsoft's main campus and surrounded by its other buildings.
The tract includes three buildings totaling 232,763 square feet.
Downers Grove, Ill.-based Spiegel Group, which owns Eddie Bauer, filed for bankruptcy in March 2003 and announced in April that it would sell the Redmond-based retailer as part of its Chapter 11 reorganization plan.
Spiegel spokeswoman Debbie Koopman said the real-estate transaction is part of the company's larger restructuring process. After a review, "we made a decision how to best utilize those assets," she said.
A procedural hearing is scheduled for Tuesday.
Microsoft had long been considered a potential buyer for the Eddie Bauer campus. The company has spent more than $300 million since September 2001 purchasing real estate around its main campus, including the $100 million purchase of the nearby Cedar Court complex in October 2002.
Microsoft spokeswoman Tami Begasse said the company's near-term space needs have been met by the three new buildings, but the offer is "consistent with past opportunities in and around our Overlake campus."
The company in April opened a 300,000-square-foot building on campus and is expected this fall to finish renovating two additional buildings it purchased from SpaceLabs. Those properties will bring the company's total office space on the Eastside to 8 million square feet.
If the court approves the sale of the Eddie Bauer campus, the outdoor-clothing retailer would have the right to lease the campus from Microsoft for three years at $3 million a year, according to court records.
It's unclear whether the purchase would further stall construction of Microsoft's second campus in Issaquah, a 152-acre site with the potential to hold 1.2 million square feet in office space.
The company recently told the city of Issaquah that it won't start building a campus there for at least another year, although some estimate construction is unlikely before 2006.
Monica Soto Ouchi: 206-515-5632 or msoto@seattletimes.com