Amy’s Kitchen settles in to new downtown Petaluma headquarters

Andy and Rachel Berliner, the founders of Amy’s Kitchen, always considered Petaluma to be their home turf. So when plans arose to build a new corporate headquarters for the family-owned organic food giant, they knew where they wanted to be located.

What wasn’t always certain was where in Petaluma it should be built, with initial plans calling for a large new development in the southern part of the city. Then the COVID-19 pandemic happened.

“People stopped working in offices,” Andy Berliner, still the company’s CEO, said during an open house event last Friday for Amy’s Kitchen’s new headquarters — which are not, it turns out, in the southern part of town.

Instead the world- and work-altering pandemic inspired a change of course for the company, Berliner said, leading them to a smaller, but much better situated, renovated office at 109 Kentucky St. in Petaluma’s lively and well-trafficked downtown.

The Friday afternoon unveiling, which included comments from city and company leaders, vegetarian nibbles and a ribbon-cutting, was a coming-out party of sorts for the new headquarters, which is designed to take office work to the next level.

“In the office environment, it’s about collaboration, it’s about connection,” said Paul Schiefer, a longtime company employee who was elevated to president last April.

The new offices provide plenty of places for that, with an open floor plan dominating the street level that features large meeting rooms, a modern kitchen at its center, and an airy mezzanine with dozens of tables and workstations. The building’s already sizable windows were enlarged as part of the renovation, filling the area with natural light. Upstairs are the private offices.

“I’m still a little bit in awe that it turned out so well,” Schiefer said.

He said Amy’s Kitchen — which employs more than 2,600 people in all — will probably host up to 80 employees per day at its downtown headquarters.

The building was previously home to a longtime department store, dating back to the 1940s, before it was taken over by a furniture retailer in the mid-1980s.

The building falls within Petaluma’s Historic Commercial District, and its unique features included rounded corners, window placement and other distinctive features that were kept as part of the exterior renovations.

Amy’s, founded in Petaluma in 1987, advanced the remodel with city support. Most of the renovations, including seismic retrofitting and the addition of the mezzanine space — upping its size to about 20,000 square feet — were to the interior of the building.

Nice as the new office space is, company leaders are equally excited about what’s outside the front doors: downtown Petaluma’s many shops, restaurants and other amenities.

“We really wanted a place of culture and connection. … This site really made that possible,” Schiefer said.

City leaders in attendance shared that enthusiasm, commenting on both the quality of the new offices and the boost the new headquarters were likely to give Petaluma’s main business corridor.

“It’s a real treat for the city of Petaluma to have your business in our town,” said Mayor Kevin McDonnell before the ribbon-cutting. The new corporate office, he said, fits well with the city’s vision of “a vibrant downtown.”

According to local historian Katherine Rinehart, 109 Kentucky St. was built in the “Streamline Moderne style, characterized by rounded corners, semicircular bays, terra cotta accents, glass blocks and metal, and smooth exterior finishes.”

Built in 1941 as a Leader Department Store — “considered the largest and most modern department store in the North Bay devoted entirely to ladies’ wear,” according to Rinehart — the highly visible building on the corner of Kentucky Street and Western Avenue was soon sold to Carithers and Sons, Inc., which kept it a department store but added the “Carithers” name in cursive on its side.

In 1985, it became a furniture store, but more recently was empty and unused until Amy’s Kitchen leased it, putting its own name in cursive on its side.

On Friday, many longtime Petaluma residents who had gathered to celebrate the new headquarters recalled their own personal connections to the iconic building.

“When I was a little girl, my mother ran the elevator here,” said Onita Pellegrini, CEO of the Petaluma Area Chamber of Commerce.

Amy’s Kitchen is said to be crafting plans to hold cooking classes and other open events at its downtown offices, but company officials were not ready to announce any engagements yet.

“As we settle into our new space, we're looking at ways we can further connect with the community and will announce them when we know the specifics,” said Defne Crowe, the company’s consumer communications manager.

Don Frances is editor of the Petaluma Argus-Courier. Reach him at don.frances@arguscourier.com.