By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
Bartell Drugs, which has two stores in West Seattle, soon will have its corporate headquarters here too.
The company has leased space in North Delridge at the West Seattle Corporate Center, confirms marketing vice president Theron Andrews.
That’s the building known best for its huge flag, a legacy from its 1991 origins as the headquarters of Services Group of America, which moved to Arizona six years ago, blaming a “punitive estate tax” here. (A related entity still owns the building.)
Bartell Drugs, family owned and operated since 1890, is moving here from Georgetown, where it’s been headquartered for more than a quarter-century.
So why move?
Andrews says the corporate offices “no longer need to be near the warehouse. Systems allow the office and warehouse to be separated now.” West Seattle Corporate Center, he says, has the right location and the right “size of space.” It also allows an upgraded fiber-optics network for the company.
It’s been a year of big news for Bartell Drugs already, with plans to open a second store in Ballard, and a store in North Bend, as well as a variety of other new initiatives, including a remodeled and expanded website, all detailed here.
The company has been in West Seattle since 1938, according to Andrews, who says its original WS location on California SW was at one point managed by George D. Bartell, the company’s current president and CEO. (That location closed when the Jefferson Square store opened in 1987.)
Almost 100 Bartell Drugs employees will work in the new West Seattle Corporate Center space, with the move expected in October, according to Andrews – who, by the way, is a West Seattleite, and “really looking forward” to soon be working close to home.
(If you’re wondering about the occupancy percentage at WSCC once this move is complete – we have messages out to its leasing agents, and will add any additional information we obtain.)
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