Levi's Staying Put

Friday, July 17, 2009

San Francisco–based Levi Strauss & Co. won’t be moving its headquarters to the East Bay after all. The blue-jeans maker has signed a 10-year lease to stay at Levi Plaza, 1155 Battery St. Last year, the venerable denim company put out requests for proposals for commercial property in the East Bay area, located around Oakland. The thought of no Levi Strauss in San Francisco was disturbing to city officials, who praised the company for keeping its headquarters right where it has been since 1982. Before that, Levi’s was located at the Embarcadero Center. Meanwhile, Levi’s finished the acquisition of 73 Levi’s and Dockers outlet stores licensed to Anchor Blue Retail Group Inc., which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in May. The acquisition price was $73 million. Levi’s will start remodeling some stores and upgrading some of the merchandise.