K2 Sports leaving Vashon for Sodo district
K2 Sports, the renowned manufacturer of skis and snowboards, will move its headquarters from Vashon Island to Seattle's Sodo district.
No loss of jobs is expected, but the move from Vashon, home to K2 Sports since 1961, is chilling to the island's business community.
The company's business operations, which include more than 200 employees in customer service, sales and marketing, as well as product development and prototyping, will take up residence in a new 28,000-square-foot facility at 4201 Sixth Ave. S.
K2 also plans to open a 90,000 square-foot showroom for new products.
The move is to begin in mid-August and be completed in early November. Once the Vashon facilities have been cleared, K2 plans to put the property up for sale.
Shipping and receiving will remain in Fife. Manufacturing and production is based primarily in China.
The company has simply outgrown Vashon, said Robert Marcovitch, president of K2 Sports, a subsidiary of Carlsbad, Calif.-based K2 Inc.
The Sodo location will allow the company to be more readily accessible to customers and vendors, a difficult thing to manage when you're "off the beaten track," said Marcovitch.
"From a business perspective, the location of the facility really hampers our ability to progress," he said. "Our business has changed dramatically and continues to change. It's hard to do that from an island"
About 15 percent of the company's employees live on the island. Marcovitch expects them to make the commute to Seattle.
The news is a blow to Vashon's business community.
"The heart of the heart of the Sound is leaving," said Lee Ockinga, contract executive director of the Vashon Island Chamber of Commerce.
Ockinga was shocked to hear of the move but she doesn't expect any catastrophic impact.
"A lot of people have left in the past," said Ockinga. "We're still here. The amazing thing about the island is its ability to reinvent itself. We can do it again."
Kathy F. Mahdoubi: 206-464-8292 or kmahdoubi@seattletimes.com