Currently, Avalara is headquartered on Bainbridge Island, a lovely place with more than its share of artsy places and wine bars. But if you have ever visited, you know the ferry between the island and Seattle represents a challenge for air travelers since it runs about every 45 minutes—sometimes 40, sometimes 50, occasionally 60—and takes 35 minutes and you miss your ferry and chances of making it to the airport evaporate. Or you can drive the other direction, circumnavigating most of the sound, 80 miles or so. Avalara will be the anchor tenant, leasing the top six floors—100,000-sq. ft. with options to take on more. "We chose this location because of its proximity to public transportation, the football and baseball stadiums," CEO Scott McFarlane said in a prepared statement. I'm sensing a trend here. When Avalara moved into new space in Durham, N .C., it picked up a site whose windows look onto the playing field of the Durham Bulls. It originally entered the Raleigh-Durham area through the purchase of Tax Technology Services, which developed CertCapture.
AVALARA MOVING HEADQUARTERS Featured
Avalara plans to consolidate its offices in the Seattle, Wash., area in a new office building next year. The company says it will move into the building at 255 King Street, the Avalara Hawk Tower—it gets its name on the building—by the end of 2017. The sales-and-use-tax company says this will be the first time its employees in the region have been in one building since 2001.
