Friedman’s Home Improvement, Amy’s Kitchen and Clover Stornetta expand in Petaluma

Petaluma’s economy continues to blossom as three high-profile Sonoma County companies - Amy’s Kitchen, Clover Stornetta Farms and Friedman’s Home Improvement - recently signed leases for new or expanded headquarters there.

Friedman’s, which has four stores in the region, is the latest company to commit to bringing more than 60 office and administrative staff to Petaluma. Its decision follows similar announcements this year by San Francisco ticketing company Vendini, banking app maker FIS Mobile and global insurance carrier Allianz, which is closing its Fireman’s Fund offices in Novato.

Natural foods maker Amy’s Kitchen, meanwhile, is expanding its existing offices by 14,700 square feet. And dairy processor Clover, which is making $15 million worth of capital improvements to its production and distribution facilities in the city, will move to 18,000 square feet of leased offices this winter.

Both a city official and a key commercial property company said the new batch of companies are adding diversity that will make Petaluma more resilient through good and bad times.

“It’s just an absolutely dynamic change to the fundamentals of our market,” said Scott Stranzl, a vice president at Basin Street Properties.

Fifteen years ago, the telecom industry held a dominant share of the available office space in the city, Stranzl said. But after the dot-com recession at the turn of the century, many of those jobs disappeared and the office vacancy rate in Petaluma skyrocketed, hitting 40  percent in early 2010.

The city’s office vacancy rate ended September at 14 percent, according to Santa Rosa commercial brokerage Keegan & Coppin/Oncor International. Basin Street said in the past few months it has further declined, with Clover, Amy’s and Friedman’s together absorbing more than 35,000 square feet in net space.

Amy’s will expand into office space now used by Clover, which in turn will be moving a few blocks over to a new facility in a win-win outcome for both companies, said Mkulima Britt, one of Clover’s three owners. The new office will give Clover room to grow and space for a new sampling lab where employees can taste the company’s new products and those of the competition.

“It is important for us to stay in Petaluma,” Britt said. “The brand’s heritage has been in Petaluma for almost 100 years.”

About 55 of Clover’s 235  employees will work in the new offices, he said.

Friedman’s CEO Barry Friedman said the move from Santa Rosa will allow the company to place all its office and administrative staff under one roof.

Petaluma was selected because of its proximity to all three of Friedman’s Sonoma County stores. As sweeteners, moving further south will make it easier to attract talent from elsewhere in the Bay Area and will return the 575-employee company to its roots.

“It does definitely have a nostalgic feel to it, since we were founded in Petaluma in 1946,” Friedman said.

At Amy’s, the company continues to grow with a new food manufacturing plant in Idaho and the summer opening in Rohnert Park of its first drive-thru restaurant, which features a nearly all-organic menu. Amy’s now employs nearly 2,500 workers, including more than 130 in its Petaluma offices.

Amy’s founders Andy and Rachel Berliner live in Petaluma and value having their headquarters in the city, said Mike Resch, executive vice president of administration.

“We’re excited about the growth and excited to do it here,” he said.

Ingrid Alverde, economic development manager for Petaluma, said the city’s economy has made considerable progress since the last recession. But she insisted that city officials need to continue to work with existing businesses, attract new ones and make plans so that “we will be better positioned to weather those storms in the future.”

You can reach Staff Writer Robert Digitale at 521-5285 or robert.digitale@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @rdigit