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Community Corner

You Ask: Is Andronico's Moving Out of Albany?

The specialty market decided to relocate its headquarters to its flagship store on Irving Avenue in San Francisco for environmental and economic reasons, a spokeswoman said.

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Andronico’s Community Markets, the upscale grocery store known for its specialty items, such as natural and organic foods, meat and seafood, as well as its wine and cheese selection, is widely known to many local residents for its very first store on Solano Avenue in Berkeley, which was founded in 1929 by Greek immigrant Frank Andronico.

And for 25 years, Andronico’s has called Albany its corporate home, running its business out of a nondescript office complex at 1109 Washington Ave., across from .

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Albany resident wondered if Andronico’s was thinking about moving out of Albany. He spotted a “For Lease” sign recently at the office complex.  

We contacted Andronico’s — and got the quick answer. On April 26, Andronico’s did indeed move its headquarters out of Albany and into empty offices at its flagship San Francisco store at 1200 Irving St.

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Diane Krebs, operations administrator for Andronico’s, said the lease was up May 1 at the Albany site.

“It was a decision made here (in San Francisco) not to continue the lease,” Krebs said. She said because Andronico’s had the empty office space in San Francisco, it was an “environmentally sound move” – as well as an economic decision. Krebs said about 30 employees relocated from Albany to the San Francisco site.

A spokesman for Norheim & Yost, the Berkeley commercial real estate firm in charge of leasing the Washington Avenue site, echoed the comments by Krebs, saying that Andronico’s had existing office space in San Francisco and wanted to move into that complex.

The Albany office complex includes 10 private offices, 25 cubicles, four restrooms, a kitchenette and a lunchroom, as well as parking for 15 cars on a 4,500-square-foot lot. The Norheim & Yost spokesman said only the office complex is for lease, not the liquor store that fronts it on San Pablo Avenue.

What do you think about Andronico’s moving out of Albany? Tell us in the comments.

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