The Des Moines Register is reporting Fareway plans to move its corporate headquarters from Boone to the Des Moines metro.

Fareway CEO Reynolds Cramer told The Register he didn’t make the decision lightly as it was his great grandparents who opened Fareway’s first store in Boone in 1938. Cramer said Fareway’s headquarters in Boone is out of space and many of the people who work there live in the Des Moines metro.

According to the newspaper, Fareway is buying a building in Johnston that had been the Iowa Bankers Association headquarters and 100 employees will move into that building next spring.

In a statement provided to KWBG Radio, Boone Mayor John Slight said Fareway will remain a vital corporate citizen of the city and 600 Fareway employees will still work in Boone. Slight said while disappointing, moving Fareway’s corporate headquarters to Johnston is important to Fareway’s continued expansion and that’s beneficial to Boone.

According to the company’s website, Fareway operates more than 130 stores in Iowa and six other states and has over 12,000 employees.

Radio Iowa